For Taishin, do they list your address on the proof of savings on deposit?
[quote=âTony the Tigerâ]I need a bank statement to prove my name and residence in Taiwan.
I went to my bank yesterday(Taiwan Cooperative) to get a printed bank statement. They wouldnât give me one.
First, I went to the information desk and asked for a âbank statementâ. In Chinese itâs called a éčĄĺ°čłŹĺŽ/éčĄĺ ąĺ/éčĄçľĺŽ. The lady there was just completely unhelpful. She said that banks donât do that and that there was no such thing as a bank statement in Taiwan. I said, you know those statements that banks send out to their customers every month, I just need a print out of that. Again she protested that thereâs no such thing. I explained that all I needed was ANY type of printed document which shows my name, address, and account number, thatâs it. She again repeated that Taiwanese banks canât/wonât do that. She further stated that in her 30 years of banking, no one has ever made such a request before. She was absolutely incredulous.
This was going nowhere and I still had other business to handle with the bank teller so I left the area. And when I left ,the lady immediately did the typically Taiwanese thing where they complain, rant, and rave to their colleagues. She basically repeated everything and again said in her 30 years working in the banking industry, she has never heard of such a thing.
After I had handled everything with the bank teller, I again attempted to get some sort of print out. The guy working the counter was just as dumb and incredulous as the lady. He was also dumbfounded by my request. He said that he canât print anything for me. I again said that all I needed was anything which displayed my name, address, and account number. He said no, there is nothing he can do for me. He went on to say that if I wanted all this info, I should just access my account online and print it out myself, sigh. You just canât counter that type of logic.
I really donât think that banks here understand the concept of someone needing printed documents to prove a name and residence. No doubt things are done much differently here, but I refuse to believe that banks here have no idea of what a bank statement is. All I need is a printed document which displays my name, address, and account number. I donât think thatâs too much to expect from a bank.
Can anyone shed some light on this? Do banks here really not know what a bank statement is?[/quote]
I seriously cannot believe you spent so much time trying to get a piece of such a simply document and nobody managed to help you out. These people should learn how western banks work. I mean, come on, look into your computer, find a relevant page and click a combination of keys on your keyboard (hint: CTRL + P) and then click OK. That is it. It is not like you were asking them to print you out data of another person. That was your personal data that you wanted printed. 
Maybe those people simply donât have printers? I know, it is silly, but maybe we should recommend them using some ⌠I donâ t know, an online printing service, you know, those that print booklets for you and other stuff. Let me do a Google search ⌠10 seconds later ⌠ok, here is one I say next time you go to the bank (if ever :roflmao: ), give them the address :-))) Their customer service will improve, like immediately!!! This is hilarious!
Most old fashion banks in Taiwan use the passbook. And dont provide a statement per se. And very infrequently will any business need to know what money you have in your bank. If a credit lender (say a car dealership) wanted to lend you money, they could probably call your bank from their office and be given the answer over the telephone. Your passbook is your statement. When I had an account at the Post Office in Taiwan, i would have to present my passbook after something like 20 transactions using the ATm, so the balance could be reflected on my passbook.
In the USA a lot of banks require you have a minimum deposit with them. And thats because it costs money to send out a bank statement every month. In Taiwan a lot of banks have no minimum deposit because it doesnt cost them anything to have your money in their bank. No statements are generated or mailed out, thus no cost.
Well thatâs HSBC. A real bank. Not a Taiwanese bank.
Taiwanese banks are the mutant stepchild of the banking industry. They donât do things here like they do elsewhere in the world.[/quote]
Correct ! And that goes for a LOT of things too.
Indeed - I needed a bank statement recently to use as a proof of address - they just couldnât give me it (Cathay).
In the end, after speaking to loads of people, the only way round it was to get a Tax Return (?) form from them - which did show my address.
For statements, they said no one does that - thatâs what the passbook is forâŚ
So I asked around and apparently itâs true, thereâs no such thing as a bank statement in Taiwan.
There is only what you mentioned, which is also known as 貥ç˘čć or ĺ揞čć. I went to a different bank today(Megabank) and asked for one. Itâs a pretty serious affair, you have to fill out a document and also state a reason as to why you want it, and it costs 50nt.
To my surprise, the document doesnât even have your address on it! WTF?! You have got to be kidding me. Itâs got my name, my account number, and my balance but no address. So basically in Taiwan, banks cannot print for you ANY document with your name, address, and account number. Sigh this is just too sick, oh Taiwan what am I to do with you.[/quote]
You could not do this in the UK either. You need to submit numerous forms of ID and then they would post the statement to your mailing address. Usually youâd have to phone a number to sort it out, the bank donât want to deal with this sort of request in person. IN THE WEST. At least a 7 day process.
When doing something for the first time it is always easy to blame another culture for not making something happen as instantly as you want it. The reality is that you canât just stump up at the bank and ask them to provide a document with your name, address, finances etc at will. Youâd know that if you ever tried to do it in the west before.
Why banks in Taiwan should be able to predict the Westerners behaviour is nonsense. Bottom line is most expats turn up in these situations with an expectation of how things should work based on stuff they made up in their heads. NOT based on how things actually work in the west. What the OP wants could not be done with ease in a Western country either. But guess what, it is easy to blame the Taiwanese for this stuff. So blame away.
YAWNâŚ
âI went to the supermarket and asked for 497 coffee granules in my jar of coffee. Assholes refused to do a count. Backward assed clowns.â
Cobblers, superking. The OP wasnât making any reference to his home culture - but yes, he was just turning up âwith an expectation of how things should work based on stuff they made up in their headsâ. And WTF is wrong with that? There is no logical problem with what he was asking. Banks SHOULD be expected to instantly produce a copy of whatever information they hold about you, including your real-time balance, on the spot (assuming you can show proper ID, of course). The entire financial system depends on us having faith in banks as competent entities.
If the people at your bank are incompetent, paper-shuffling jobsworths, that really doesnât prove anything. I can turn up at my UK bank with my ATM card and a passport and have an official statement printed. Itâll cost me 5 pounds, but theyâll do it. Alternatively I can log into internet banking and do the same thing myself for free.
Taiwanese bank employees are by and large useless tools.
They come up with such gems as âthis isnât your home area, therefore you canât have an account hereâ, and âI canât look up this persons transit number so you can deposit money even though I have their account numberâ
In a few cases, banks couldnât be arsed to set up an account for a foreigner so they say to go to another bank.
But yet they close super early at 3pm and then stay until 8pm and do bugger all to look like they are busy. And anything outside of the box, forget about it.
So yes, I am not surprised in the least that they canât do a simple thing like prepare a bank statement.
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Yes they are very very unhelpful. I should say again what a riggermero i had to go thru to cash my AMEX travelers checks recently.
Ok , thats a pretty ancient instrument granted. Indonesia , I could NOT cash them at all, anywhere. But at least in Taiwan i could. But as it turns out, only at the CKS airport and at the Sungshan airport (and presumably at the KHH airport). They wanted to charge me 200nt per 100usd travelers check at the CKS airport. I declined their good offer.
But then i went from bank to bank in taipei and nobody could do anything. Finally i went to the Sungshan airport. And lo and behold there was only ONE bank and at only ONE counter where one could change Travelers checks. And only AMEX travelers checks and only up to 500 usd.
Luckily thats what I had , AMEX and 500 USD. So i got them changed and I only lost bout 400nt for the transaction instead of 1000nt at the CKS airport.
p.s. TW banks got it pretty good on the whole. TW people like to save money and like to put their stash in the banks. And they can use the aTM when they want some out and want to put cash in. So the tellers have it pretty light. Most of them are just there to look pretty I think (cuz less and less people are bothering to use the line when they can use the ATM).
The real biz is giving loans and collecting the interest. The work comes from not making too many âstupidâ loans so the NonPerforming Loans dont upset the apple cart.
So yeah, they are not paragons of banking efficiency them. Who knows what they all do there really.
US banks are pretty good at giving you online access where you can print up statements up to a year ago I think. And do online banking. But then they pay you one percent per annum interest too.
And if you make a mistake on a deposit they ding you too.
[quote=âfinleyâ]Cobblers, superking. The OP wasnât making any reference to his home culture - but yes, he was just turning up âwith an expectation of how things should work based on stuff they made up in their headsâ. And WTF is wrong with that? There is no logical problem with what he was asking. Banks SHOULD be expected to instantly produce a copy of whatever information they hold about you, including your real-time balance, on the spot (assuming you can show proper ID, of course). The entire financial system depends on us having faith in banks as competent entities.
If the people at your bank are incompetent, paper-shuffling jobsworths, that really doesnât prove anything. I can turn up at my UK bank with my ATM card and a passport and have an official statement printed. Itâll cost me 5 pounds, but theyâll do it. Alternatively I can log into internet banking and do the same thing myself for free.[/quote]
I agree that a bank should be able to facilitate the provision of a statement detailing your name, address, account number and account transactions, but you cannot simply arrive and expect one to be printed out and handed to you. In the UK you can turn up and get a statement of your account, but it will not have your home address printed on it. In fact, most banks will not provide any sort of posted monthly statement any more. You have to specifically request for these things to be posted to you. I went through this process last year and it took various trips to the bank, form filling and then phone calling. That was with HSBC.
There is nothing wrong with turning up with your own expectations, but 9 times out of 10 you will leave disappointed.
That pretty much sums up the UK, for me 
Anyway, HSBC are a bunch of wankers. In fact they not even any good at being wankers. The last time I went there, theyâd actually mislaid my bank account. Literally disappeared. They werenât interested in attempting to recover it. Fortunately it didnât have much money in it.
btw, I just happened to need a statement myself from my bank (ĺćł°). I didnât even know the correct word for âstatementâ, but they still said âno problemâ. Not only were the counter girls immensely helpful (and cute) they produced what I needed without getting grumpy at the malfunctioning computer equipment.
First bank just did that to me tonight.
Whatâs a bank statement.
She then said she didnât know how and she was really busy so , you donât really want to wait around , they are so busy it will take over 30 minutes to see someone and they probably canât do it.
Sat around waiting the half hour and the line wasnât moving. Government banks donât give a toss how long you wait.
Finally I told the guard to ask if someone knows how to do it.
A woman came over and said itâs not possible even though another branch in Taichung did it for me before.
She said I have to go back to my main branch in Kaohsiung.
What kind of crap is that that someone needs to go back to the home branch for services.
And Taichung bank where I have an account opened in Kaohsiung said I need to go there to get a debit card because thatâs your home branch.
Banks here are a special kind of stupid
looks like someoneâs banking at the wrong bank for him 
a govât bank should only be for Taiwanese. If youâre a foreigner, you should be with one of the ânew banksâ, which are those that were established after the govât opened up the banking market to new local players (besides the govât banks) around 1991, I believe. âNew banksâ are Chinatrust, Taishin, E. Sun, Sinopac, Fubon, etc. etc.
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The reason Taiwanese people generally donât try and get proof of address from their bank is that it is already on their ID cards, which is good enough. The only time they need them is if they are applying for visas or doing things where they need to prove they have access to a certain amount of money.
Sorry for the late reply.
Yes government banks really arenât for foreigners.
I have an account with E. sun (love the horrible romanization) and taishin but theyâre dormant as my company said to use first bank so I go on payday to the first bank ATM and withdraw it all and then cross the street to HSBC so i donât need to deal with those wankers.
I only once needed service from them and they couldnât do it.
They also will cancel my credit card yearly if they donât get an updated arc copy. There was a delay in getting the arc from immigration and my card is suspended, they wouldnât accept the receipt from immigration.
Government banks pride themselves in seeing how long the customer can wait. And old people will wait forever because they somehow think a government bank is safer
Must be the way youâre asking, Iâve gotten account statements from MEGA with no problem whatsoever for visa applications.
Reviving this post after making a new discovery last week.
In every country that I have lived in, whenever I needed to receive a refund, I would just give the counterpart my name and bank account number. Not in Taiwan. I was asked to âproveâ that the bank account belongs to me and, after launching the app to take a screenshot and send it via e-mail, I realised that for some obscure security reasons my name is blanked everywhere. Only applying for the old fashioned paper book, aka âpassbookâ, which I declined to have upon opening my bank account (I mistakenly thought hey itâs the 21st Century, who does paper banking any more?), got me out of trouble.
Moral of the story: cherish your passbook as you would do with your red name stamp 
Found your problem. First Bank is particularly egregious in their stupid rules.
I was so angry i took all my original applications back and burned them.