Taiwanese credit card with no fees / surcharge for purchasing abroad

Business Money
1

Is there any?
I asked Taishin and Cathay, they don’t have.

2

I’ve looked before also, these traveller’s cards don’t seem popular in Taiwan. Please do report back if you find something.

3

Yeah I’m interested too .

4

I have a HSBC Taiwan card that Ive been told has a lower international fee, i think I was told it was 1.5% vs 2.5% from other banks. That was old information told to me many years ago so I have no idea. Otherwise as I know they all charge a fee.

5

Today I was told both taishin and cathay charge 1.5%, not yet found 0%

6

There are some with cash back amount on overseas purchases equivalent to the forex fee. I forget which, but you should ask about “overseas cash back” not “no forex fee”.

7

Yeah, I have one of these from Megabank.

1 Like
8

Like ma3xiu1, I also have one of these from Megabank.

Guy

9

Always has the most ridiculously high fees. Local banks in most countries almost always have better rates for international transfer than HSBC from my comparison. IDK why it’s like that when they are an international bank.

10

Cos they try and make you sign up for their premium account service which has reduced fees, to get that you have a make substantial deposits.

11

Also they require the most amount of documentations and paper work to open i don’t even bother.

12

Almost all banks charge 1.5%. But with HSBC you get 2.22% cash back so you still end up ahead by .72% and this is the best deal I’ve found. I otherwise wouldn’t have bothered because they’re not foreigner friendly. They asked for a guarantor and tie the expiration date to the ARC validity. I talked them out of the guarantor requirement but couldn’t talk them into extending the expiration of the card.

2 Likes
13

Interesting that out of the HSBC cashback cards, only the Signature Card has the 2.22% on overseas spend.

I might get an application going this week if I cannot find anything else, thanks for the heads up.

14

Thank you greves, it seems bankers understand these terms, really strange

15

Sorry, which card exactly offer’s the 1.5% cashback from Megabank?

16

In this contex …
Does something like Revolut or N26 does exist in Taiwan ?

17

The MasterCard I received says “Happiness.” It seems to be co-branded with Chunghwa Telecom, which is of no use to me, but the cash back part is quite nice.

I hope this helps!

Guy

18

Thanks for that, found it:
https://creditcard.megabank.com.tw/cardfamily02.asp?cid=2&sid=38

The cashback is by spend tier so it’s not quite 1.5% in total:

Accumulated new consumption in the month Cash back ratio
Transaction amount of NT$1~NT$5,000 (inclusive) for the month 0.3%
Transaction amount of NT$5,001~ NT$20,000 (inclusive) for the month 0.5%
Transaction amount of more than 20,001 yuan (inclusive) in the current month 0.7%

Example trial:
<Example 1> The new bill is NT$5,000, and the reward is NT$5,0000.3%=NT$15.
<Example 2> The new bill is NT$200,000, and the reward is (NT$5,0000.3%)┼(NT$15,0000.5%)┼(NT$180,0000.7%)=NT$1,350.

I think the HSBC one wins out for me but will see if there’s anything else til the weekend.

1 Like
19

Received my HSBC Signature card. Applied for direct debit (autopay) from another bank’s account, the ETA on this is 40 days :angry:.

But anyway thanks for the heads up @gnaij.