My girlfriend and I wire money back to America every month. We’ve used both Chinatrust and Bank of Taiwan to do this and I must recommend Bank of Taiwan.
At Chinatrust, you are required to fill out the paperwork, getting all of the little boxes right (hopefully you can read and write Chinese or bring along someone who can). You must also present cash to be wired back. The charge for sending the money back is 900 NT.
Then we went to go do it at Bank of Taiwan. They fill out all the paperwork for you (printed out) and withdraw the funds from your account. They charge 300NT, regardless of the amount you are sending back.
We send back to a Wells Fargo bank account, which also charges us a fee, but it’s not bad. This way it’s easier for us to do online banking (Taiwanese online banking sucks) and pay credit card bills, student loans, etc.
Just a tip. Anyone got any cheaper ways to send money back to America?
[quote=“MPenguin”]My girlfriend and I wire money back to America every month. We’ve used both Chinatrust and Bank of Taiwan to do this and I must recommend Bank of Taiwan.
At Chinatrust, you are required to fill out the paperwork, getting all of the little boxes right (hopefully you can read and write Chinese or bring along someone who can). You must also present cash to be wired back. The charge for sending the money back is 900 NT.
Then we went to go do it at Bank of Taiwan. They fill out all the paperwork for you (printed out) and withdraw the funds from your account. They charge 300NT, regardless of the amount you are sending back.
We send back to a Wells Fargo bank account, which also charges us a fee, but it’s not bad. This way it’s easier for us to do online banking (Taiwanese online banking sucks) and pay credit card bills, student loans, etc.
Just a tip. Anyone got any cheaper ways to send money back to America?[/quote]
If the amount is small just paypal them… The fee would be less than the wire transfer charge unless it goes over a certain amount… or you could always use Western Union…
I don’t trust Paypal. Simple as that. Fortunately, I’ve never been burned by them, but I’ve heard plenty of accounts of people who have been. I won’t trust them with my money.
I think 300NT is quite reasonable for sending several thousand dollars back to America every month or so.
If it were just NT$300 that would be fine with me. I’m also fine with the US$3 that my US bank tacks on, on its end.
What I would like to avoid is the US$15-20 charge collected along the way by some third-party bank that I never see. AFAIK every wire transfer I’ve ever made has been subject to this. Any ideas how to get around it?
[quote=“Lil’ Slugger”]If it were just NT$300 that would be fine with me. I’m also fine with the US$3 that my US bank tacks on, on its end.
What I would like to avoid is the US$15-20 charge collected along the way by some third-party bank that I never see. AFAIK every wire transfer I’ve ever made has been subject to this. Any ideas how to get around it?[/quote]
We’ve never been charged by a 3rd party bank. The bank we send money to, Wells Fargo, takes a fee out, but never a 3rd party. Can’t help you, sorry.
[quote=“wonder”][quote=“MPenguin”]My girlfriend and I wire money back to America every month. [quote]
Which “America” are you talking about? North America, Central America, or South America?[/quote][/quote][/quote]
There is only one country that actually has “America” in its name. Sure, there are continents and regions that have the name “America,” but why would one talk about a continent and not the specific country?
I send back a few hundred dollars every month. I mailed by ATM card from my Taiwanese bank account to my sister back in the States. She just withdraws the money every month and deposits it into my US bank account. I pay just a NT$70 fee in my Taiwanese bank account and something like a US$2 fee for the US. Not bad for amounts under $1,000.
I’ve heard you can just buy traveler’s checks and mail them straight to your bank to be deposited. However, I mailed a normal check to my bank once and it was never deposited. Don’t know what happened to it, but ever since then I’ve felt weary about depositing checks by mail.
another way, and I understand a lot of Chinese people do this (and I hear the Arabs have a network like this) is to deposit money in someone’s account here in TW. That someone has a family member in the target country, US, who will then deposit the corresponding amount in your account (of course, you would have to have some level of trust in this network).
There’s an even easier way to do it. Open an account with a TW bank and apply for two bank cards, both with the ability to access international banking via ATMs. Then, simply deposit the money in your account in TW, and have a person in your home country withdraw the money using an identical card. That person can then deposit the money into another account in your home country. Of course, you have to get someone you trust.
The reason I made the comment about sending money to “America” is because blurring the references among countries where the specific country becomes a generic place name is dangerous and simply not accurate. My students say “we are going to America next summer…” and to me that just sounds like bad grammar and ignorance. “We are going to the US,” or “we are going to Arizona” would be much better.
Being a former journalist and current magazine editor lets me be very anal about things like place names. I don’t think many Canadians or Brits would say “I just got back from America last week”. But I do know the Americans love to say it, as if it is the only place in the world that is worthy of such a designation. It just gets my dander up! I certainly don’t fault ESL students for the reference but hope eventually they will start being more specific about place names. :no-no:
There’s an even easier way to do it. Open an account with a TW bank and apply for two bank cards, both with the ability to access international banking via ATMs (or one that has, the other hasn’t). Then, simply deposit the money in your account in TW, and have a person in your home country withdraw the money using an identical card. That person can then deposit the money into another account in your home country. Of course, you have to get someone you trust.
The reason I made the comment about sending money to “America” is because blurring the references among countries where the specific country becomes a generic place name is dangerous and simply not accurate. My students say “we are going to America next summer…” and to me that just sounds like bad grammar and ignorance. “We are going to the US,” or “we are going to Arizona” would be much better.
Being a former journalist and current magazine editor lets me be very anal about things like place names. I don’t think many Canadians or Brits would say “I just got back from America last week”. But I do know the Americans love to say it, as if it is the only place in the world that is worthy of such a designation. It just gets my dander up! I certainly don’t fault ESL students for the reference but hope eventually they will start being more specific about place names. :no-no:
A country should be named by its people and if they wanna call it America, let 'em. Now if you’re gonna be a stickler for Americans calling their country America, can we clarify the differences between UK, Great Britain, England, Scotland and Wales??
I was sending a package out to the United Kingdoms and the guys at the post office thought it was the United States… good thing they realized the error and called me to fix it (the postage is more…)
Well…okay I’ll tell ya! Is a person from Britain someone we would call English? (As in, he’s English, referring to a third person). This is a common reference and although it is generally accepted, it too is far too generic because people from English speaking countries might be confused with someone who is referred to as “English” (eg: "Oh there’s that English guy, I think he’s from Canada [referring to the native language, not the nationality or the country] which is again generally acceptable but can be confusing to ESL students or lead to awkward misunderstandings).
No, the person from Britain is indeed a Briton, the gal from Wales is Welsh, and a Scottish resident a Scot et al.
Of course, if Americans want to call their country America, then yes, let them. But it is not the correct reference because of the many Americas we have in this world. That is why the USA has the distinction United States of America, not simply America. And why is all of this so important?
I believe, as an editor, the fine lines of distinction are much more dynamic that generic references and important to young readers and especially new English speakers. Why have any distinctions at all if we’re not going to use them? That’s what makes geography and individual countries so interesting. One day Canada will be called America by someone who has been horribly mislead simply because it is in North America (although that might be a stretch). You may not see the slippery slope as I do, but as an editor/journalist and especially an ESL teacher, I must try to at least encourage specific place names.
[quote=“wonder”]There’s an even easier way to do it. Open an account with a TW bank and apply for two bank cards, both with the ability to access international banking via ATMs (or one that has, the other hasn’t). Then, simply deposit the money in your account in TW, and have a person in your home country withdraw the money using an identical card. That person can then deposit the money into another account in your home country. Of course, you have to get someone you trust.
[/quote]
That’s exactly what I said. But my bank (First Bank) wouldn’t let me have two ATM cards for the same account. So I just opened a new bank account with a different bank and used the First Bank only for transfers. I just put money into it before I need my sister in the States to withdraw.
I think you’ve opened a big can of worms with your America comments. “America” is the name of the country. Anyone who doesn’t understand what is being referred to when someone says “America” is a moron. If someone is talking about Central, South or North America, they will say Central, South or North. “America” alone means the USA.
If you have a problem with this, you’ll have to contact every maker of English dictionaries in the world, as well as pretty much every ESL book, since most of them teach “America” when referring to the USA.
Petrarch also has a great point with nationalities. People from the USA are called “Americans.” There is no other word. Why is that?
Yeah that would work too. I understand why they woudn’t want to give you two identical cards for the same account. My friend had two cards, one for local banking and one for international banking and mailed the itnl. card home for his mom so she could take money out of the account for him. Plus, you could also get an international card and say you lost it and then use the second one for the same thing.
I agree. Correct or not, this is ingrained and accepted so no more trying to change the world.
[quote=“wonder”]There’s an even easier way to do it. Open an account with a TW bank and apply for two bank cards, both with the ability to access international banking via ATMs (or one that has, the other hasn’t). Then, simply deposit the money in your account in TW, and have a person in your home country withdraw the money using an identical card. That person can then deposit the money into another account in your home country. Of course, you have to get someone you trust.
[/quote]
Sounds good in theory, but I’m pretty sure whoever is withdrawing from the account in America (the country) will have to pay some sort of international fee for withdrawing from the ATM, correct? What’s the standard ATM for a withdrawal like that? Been years since I did that in Germany and can’t remember how much I was charged then.
If you “lost” the first card chances are when a replacement is issued the first card will be deactivated, or worse anyone who tries to withdraw on that card might find the police tracking them since it’s lost. You’d want that too because if you really did lose an ATM card do you really want whoever having them withdrawing funds from your account?
Is a person from Britain someone we would call English? (As in, he’s English, referring to a third person). This is a common reference and although it is generally accepted, it too is far too generic because people from English speaking countries might be confused with someone who is referred to as “English” (eg: "Oh there’s that English guy, I think he’s from Canada [referring to the native language, not the nationality or the country] which is again generally acceptable but can be confusing to ESL students or lead to awkward misunderstandings).
