Just reading another thread about ATM cards not being able to be accessed if your ARC is out of date. It just brings to mind just how out-dated and bureaucratic the Taiwan banking system is.
Here are some things I’ve noticed at the banks I bank with that are annoying:
You can only have 1 ATM card for an account. They wouldn’t issue me a second one and said it was an impossibility.
They close at 3:30pm. That is EARLY.
Each branch is treated like a separate bank for certain features. Sometimes you have to go to the branch you opened your account in to do certain things.
They require you to authorize them to authorize you to use your account in other branches to use some features of your account there.
Does anyone else think these things are particularly bad in Taiwan? How does it compare with your home country?
[quote=“puiwaihin”]Just reading another thread about ATM cards not being able to be accessed if your ARC is out of date. It just brings to mind just how out-dated and bureaucratic the Taiwan banking system is.
Here are some things I’ve noticed at the banks I bank with that are annoying:
You can only have 1 ATM card for an account. They wouldn’t issue me a second one and said it was an impossibility.
They close at 3:30pm. That is EARLY.
Each branch is treated like a separate bank for certain features. Sometimes you have to go to the branch you opened your account in to do certain things.
They require you to authorize them to authorize you to use your account in other branches to use some features of your account there.
Does anyone else think these things are particularly bad In Taiwan? How does it compare with your home country?[/quote]
You can check your account balance from any other banks ATM. How come the other banks can access that kind of information? Uhmmmm.
How about the banks (eg First Commercial in Hsinchu) which ISSUE Visa Traveller’s Cheques, but will not cash the very traveller’s cheques they issued when you return! :loco: :loco:
Or this winner: me in Malaysia trying to bank traveller’s cheques issued by Chung Hwa about 3 years ago: I’m told that they were reported stolen. Yet to sort that one out (US$600 worth)
Oh, and then there’s the Thomas Cook traveller’s cheques (as used in most of the commonwealth) which almost no bank in the whole of Taiwan will cash.
Moral of the story: Don’t use traveller’s cheques in Taiwan, nor have them issued here!
However, on the PLUS side (just to keep this balanced):
No bank charges on withdrawals or deposits. Yes, in my country they even charge you (huge) fees to DEPOSIT in your own a/c.
Free credit card use with my HSBC a/c (granted, not a Taiwanese bank per se)
Foreign exchange department in almost any bank, unlike where I’m from, where even a large bank may have no such department.
Taiwan is woefully behind the technological times in their banking.
In the US, prior to moving here, I was able to conduct almost all of my opersonal and business banking needs over the internet.
Pay bills
Transfer funds
Check balances
Request banking asistance
Have business checks deposited directly to business accounts.
A wide range of services all from my desk computer.
I only visited the bank perhaps once a week to actually speak to a bank person.
And the ATM’s were splendid to use. With the right choice of cards I even avoided those darn ‘service fee’s’ quite often.
And I was able to access my accounts while traveling through the US and in Europe with no, or very few, problems.
Taiwan is/has been/continues to be a friggin’ medeival nightmare as far as banking goes. For both personal and business needs.
[quote=“TainanCowboy”]
Taiwan is/has been/continues to be a friggin’ medeival nightmare as far as banking goes. For both personal and business needs.[/quote]
I asked my bank to make an automatic transfer to my landlords account to pay my rent each month. They looked with confused, big eyes at me. After explaining them how that works in other countries they said it is impossible in Taiwan. When I asked why they said “Cause you could forget about the transfer when you leave the appartment”.
I wish I was that rich that I could forget …
Now I have to type numbers on the ATM each month. And make very sure I hit the exact numbers each time, uhhh. Somehow that scares me more than forgetting about a automatic transfer.
My card has been swallowed COUNTLESS times by ATMs of every sort -China Trust, Chung hwa etc. My bankbook, too. The best was when it happened at Chung hwa in Nan Shi Jiao once, during the day, and I walked in to complain. The manager tried to tell me it was MY fault. :loco:
This only ever happened to me once in my country, and it was my fault (expired card). I have had an ATM card since I was about 9.
The “deposit” function of the ATMs. Ever tried to deposit say NT$10,000 into the slot on some of those special ATMs? Invariably it doesn’t count the money correctly, accepting maybe 4 of the 10 X 1000 notes you put in. You have to keep repeating the transaction until you figure out which 4 of the 10 it accepts. :grrr:
My best example of this was (again surprise surprise) at Chung Hwa in Taipei. I accidentally withdrew 30 X 100 NTD notes in one go because I was a newbie and the ATM only had Chinese. What was I supposed to do with 30 X 100 NT notes? I immediately tried to deposit them again, and of course, the machine wouldn’t accept the money I just withdrew! The next day I went in and explained the story and made them backdate my deposit to the previous day, on principle. When I asked why the money their ATM spat out was not accepted as a deposit by the same machine, the usual shrugs and blank stares.
At home we have an envelope system: You place the deposit plus the receipt into a provided envelope and feed it into the machine. I guess they don’t have that system here because they’ve seen what the oba-sans do with the serviettes at Starbucks.
I know this is going to sound ethno-centric, but why don’t they provide forms in English, or bilingual forms? (Ok, the one in just English because most of the staff won’t know how to read it, but if they were bilingual it would work.)
This isn’t really fair to say Taiwan is behind the curve on this one because I don’t see my local branches in the US with deposit slips printed in French or Chinese, but considering that English is the world’s #1 language for international dealings it would make sense to include them.
There are lots of foreigners here. Why not have English language deposit forms and the like available and designated “foreigner friendly” branches? It’s not like Chinese people have a realistic expectation of foreigners to actually learn to read Chinese.
Yes, it’s ethno-centric, but banks in Hong Kong have both kinds of forms. And this, afterall, is a place to rant on how banks here are not as good as banks at home.
Banking is horrible here. It’s a struggle just to open a bank account. I was told by five different banks that foreigners can’t open bank accounts in Taiwan. After talking to some managers, I finally got them to pull their heads out of their asses. Regarding credit cards, even worse, still haven’t successfully got one. Then you still have all the technical and legal difficulties, plus no English service. You ask any of the major banks: Do you have a main branch? Do you have an English service department, or someone in Taipei who can speak English with a customer? - as usual, they are baffled.
How can they neglect such a major language such as English? Even in Canada you can go to almost any bank in a major city and get service in Cantonese and Mandarin.
Yikes, you guys are scaring me before I even get to Taiwan… I never use ATM and I plan to keep my credit card I use now, however it sounds like banking in Taiwan is NOT easy
You can use your credit cards (Visa/Mastercard), but making payments back home can be tricky. But for some things, like online purchases or at some local stores, only credit cards issued in Taiwan work. I was surprised a few times when my Visa wasn’t accepted because the store only accepted cards issued on local banks. Luckily, that’s the exception rather than the rule.
And there are no banks that have branches here that work in the States except through your ATM card, even though some like Citibank are here as well as there.
[quote=“puiwaihin”]
You can use your credit cards (Visa/Mastercard), but making payments back home can be tricky. But for some things, like online purchases or at some local stores, only credit cards issued In Taiwan work. I was surprised a few times when my Visa wasn’t accepted because the store only accepted cards issued on local banks. Luckily, that’s the exception rather than the rule.
And there are no banks that have branches here that work in the States except through your ATM card, even though some like Citibank are here as well as there.[/quote]
I see… well for at least my credit score rating I don’t want to close up my credit card accounts here, so maybe I won’t use them very much but at least i’ll still keep them open.
As for the other issues, I guess I’ll have to find out somethign to do. Like TainanCowboy, I do all my banking here in the states online. I almost never go to the bank (except when I drop off cash I make in tips from the restaurant I work at). Otherwise, my employers do direct deposit into my banking account. Looks like it won’t be so easy to pay my bills and whatnot in Taiwan.
I had a card eaten up at a 7-11 by a China Trust ATM. This is a major PITB for me because it was issued by my bank at home which also has lousy service so requesting a new card will take three weeks at least. I have a second and local ATM card but I recently emptied it knowing that I had another account and card I could use. :fume: :fume: :fume:
Most banks have gotten rid of this great security feature…but some banks still have it where after any X # of transactions, you ATM card will cease to work until you swipe your passbook at the bank.
Guaranteed to fail right after dinner on a Sat. evening when you don’t have any money.
When we wanted to wire money from Taiwan to our account in the US, they required the account number and routing number of our bank in the US. My wife had brought our checkbook to the bank so they could get the information. (I had to work at the time and couldn’t go along.) These supposed trained professionals had no idea which number was which on the check! Neither did their supervisor!!
Another thing here is that there’s no joint checking.
Paying your bills is a snap - just bring your bill to the local 7-11 or other convenience store. They scan the bar codes and you pay them cash.[/quote]
Some bills can be brought elsewhere (like gas has to be brought to a CPC gas station). Consider yourself lucky (like me) if you live close to one. :bravo:
Something about making international transfers which sucked here. Once I asked the bank to transfer a couple of thousands from my bank account to europe but I didn’t have my checkbook with me. So I just showed them my ARC hoping that they could just look the number up and do the thing. No way. I had to withdraw the money from the ATM outside, and give it to them in cash. :loco:
In SA many people now use their ATM cards as debit cards. You just swipe your ATM card at the pay point, enter your pin, and off you go. So convenient and no need to carry around large amounts of cash. You also can’t overspend, because it will only allow you to spend the money you have in your account.
Wonder how long it will take before we have THAT in Taiwan…
[quote=“grootkrokodil”]In SA many people now use their ATM cards as debit cards. You just swipe your ATM card at the pay point, enter your pin, and off you go. So convenient and no need to carry around large amounts of cash. You also can’t overspend, because it will only allow you to spend the money you have in your account.
Wonder how long it will take before we have THAT In Taiwan… [/quote]
They had that in Hong Kong as early as 1996. Why Taiwan is 10 years behind them is beyond me. It’s clearly not a “Chinese” thing, but a Taiwan thing.
[quote=“puiwaihin”][quote=“grootkrokodil”]In SA many people now use their ATM cards as debit cards. You just swipe your ATM card at the pay point, enter your pin, and off you go. So convenient and no need to carry around large amounts of cash. You also can’t overspend, because it will only allow you to spend the money you have in your account.
Wonder how long it will take before we have THAT In Taiwan… [/quote]
They had that in Hong Kong as early as 1996. Why Taiwan is 10 years behind them is beyond me. It’s clearly not a “Chinese” thing, but a Taiwan thing.[/quote]
Well, Hongkong used to belong to the Commonwealth.
I worked in banking for about four years while still in the States, so pretty much know the ins and outs. When I came here and saw how they did things, I couldn’t believe how backward it was … especially considering how technologically advanced they are in other areas.
Also, even after the Asian Financial Crisis, I haven’t heard or seen any (useful) major revisions of banking practices in Taiwan. I think they’re setting themselves up for many more problems.
Yet to sort that one out (US$600 worth)
