They decided to ‘confirm the fund source over the phone’ but she wouldn’t accept that it was my own money.
I also asked what’s going to happen next time and she couldn’t answer so I guess it’s going to be a problem every time.
I was really hoping I could use them for my transfers to/from Australia but them only allowing inter-country outbound transfers in USD and accepting inbound transfers requires a fight makes them useless for this purpose.
They’re only good for their NTD interest rate
Do you plan to reapply after renewing your ARC? Or will you try going to the bank for manual authentication? I haven’t applied because my ARC’s expiring in August 
I applied using 11 month left ARC was accepted on website, went to branch to authenticate, seem to go through 16/01 heard nothing back.
Is it added monthly (3.2/12)% on the final amount during that month? Not sure what compounding scheme they use
Btw how long has the 3.2% and 4% interest rates been active for? I talked to a Taiwanese who has had an account with Richart for a few years, and she said that they have these offers for new members only, and she gets much lower NTD rates with them at 1.2%.
I have a feeling these high interest rates will disappear before the end of this year for us new members. And we’ll be getting the 1.2% then too…
The expiration date for USD is 3/1/23
And for NTD is 7/1/23
I think we’ll be getting ~1% after that.
Edit: This is quite different from HYSA accounts in the US. They have some cash bonuses for new members but that’s it… They don’t put new members on a 3x interest rate compared to locals and then downgrade them every 6 months for even newer members -_-
I’d prefer a bank that consistently gives 2% than one that do these “offers” for an absurdly short period of time and then puts you at a significantly lower interest bracket. Any options?
the 1% is already much better than traditional banks here for normal accounts, only time deposits can give some better yields.
Gotcha, doesn’t make sense to keep anything except an “emergency fund” in this account then…
I see it as just a savings account, like the post office one.
Not using it operationally, just as deposit to “take away” funds from my main account, so I don’t spend it and accumulate higher interest (post office give tax-free interest and it is slightly higher that normal banks’ account). That’s it
The Richart ones is basically a flexible savings account where you can withdraw anytime (they have 5 free transfers each month).
For other “savings accounts” in Taiwan that might not be so flexible in terms of withdrawal limits (think closer to FDs), what are the interest rates available? Are they not higher than 2%?
for long period and considerable amounts, something is available, but it is nothing of interest to me. Need flexibility and investing extra funds in other ways. FDs are really something not that good to me. All you earn is eaten by inflation currently.
Tried to signup today, failed.
The signup flow posts user data back to the page, every time I went to the next step got the “oops lost in space” error message. Refresh the page with posted data and it allows you to proceed to next step. Got to the final 4th step, same error. Except this time on reposting or refreshing worked, application lost in time.
Oh well, looks like I churned and won’t be using them.
You are not missing much. I am stuck at “email back the answers to our questions”. They emailed me earlier in the week saying they still did not get it even though I sent it out weeks ago. I sent it twice this week, but no response.
My international inward transfer was finally processed without going to the branch. But having to argue with them to follow their own rules makes them no different to any other bank here. They aren’t doing much to fulfil their ‘first foreigner friendly bank’ claims
Just good for the NTD interest rate
I get the impression citizens can select the international fund source in the Richart app/online banking and the only reason we can’t do it online is because they’ve removed all the features for foreigners. Perhaps by pressuring them they will realise it’s easier to just let us have accounts operate the same as citizens rather than needlessly disallowing us access to their normal app and website
I signed and chopped 4 documents in branch 2 involving my NI, just received email asking me do you have: house registration, ARC, how many days have you lived in Taiwan, do you have children or a spouse in Taiwan, do you have s business in Taiwan, do you have NI health insurance!!!
I replied but not expecting to get an account, not happy they’ve photocopied all my ARC, NI card had me sign and now have all details about me.
I find it odd that they don’t ask these questions of foreigners when you walk in to open an account. Maybe they feel they need to be ‘careful’ as it’s an online account
Honestly all they should need is an ARC
I can’t believe they’re still asking this of foreigners… if we had household registration we wouldn’t be foreigners
Going into a branch to authenticate myself was a complete waste of time.
Apply online - import images of ARC- then told go physically in person to a building, have 2 members of staff study ARC and my ugly mug. Show all your documents to prove who you are.
2 weeks later get same questions online email.
Taiwan banks setting up new online account
Mine was set up fairly quickly as a whole. Didn’t need to do much. I just answered the questions on the phone (I guess they use email now). Account was opened immediately. However, just the same as Taiwanese they put a low limit on transfers making the account useless to anyone who is not a late teen… So I went in to the bank with my ARC and health insurance card and voila. NO SIGNING ANYTHING!
Not specifically Richart related
Received the Uniform Invoice lottery winnings automatically into my account.
No tax on 500NTD 
