Who has the best rates?
Who has the lowest fees?
HSBC is Expensive
Usually .4 NT higher than local Banks
900NT flat rate for transfer to Canada.
Huan Nan is better.
I think $350 for the transfer plus a percent of the total sent. 1000cnd costs about 500Nt to send home.
I have a large sum to send home so I want the best rate possible.
Ski
I’ve been wondering that question myself, Ski.
I visited my FCB (First Bank) branch today, asking similar questions. They quoted a $320 service fee, but I couldn’t ascertain whether there was also a percentage charge on the total transfer amount. I asked the xiaojie if there was any official fee schedule I could take home and peruse, but the answer was “meiyou.” I’ve got a copy of the standard remittance form though, and a phone number, so maybe I’ll try and follow up.
Another question I had was whether the receiving bank in Canada takes a little nip out of your wad before sending it on to its final destination. A couple of years ago I was wiring money from CHB (Chang Hwa Bank) here in Taipei to Canada. The end destination was my Royal Bank account in Calgary, but CHB first put it through the Bank of Nova Scotia, Toronto branch. The pile was always smaller than expected when I checked my Royal Bank statements online. Goodness knows how I’d find out about something like that. Does anyone in Forumosaland have a clue?
I hear it’s very good to know a friend at a local bank. My coworker tells me they can give you “friend prices” (employee rates?) on certain banking costs, which can really add up if you’re wiring six figures or more.
At any rate (ha ha – get it?) (banking humor, hmm), I hope someone comes along and fills this thread up with some good answers and advice!
I normally use either Chinatrust or Taiwan Co-Operative, fees are flat at 300NT for me, transferring about 500GBP a month, larger sum may attract a larger fee, not sure about that. Service at chinatrust is both good and efficient, money normally there the same day, in max 24 hours, and as they transfer it in the correct manner, attracts the smallest fee at the other end.
The last time I transferred money (a couple years back) there was a transfer fee of around NT$400, no percentage. The kicker was that the receiving bank also levied another transfer fee (@ CDN$28) for having the money transferred from their international banking division into my local account. Since then, I’ve sworn off transfers and just carry cash back and deposit it into my account myself. No fees, no surprises. You don’t have to worry about declaring it, as long as it’s under ten grand, but even with more, I’ve never had trouble.
CK
NT$600 for a transfer of USD from Citibank Taiwan to my bank in Germany. No exchange rate applied since it went into a USD account. But the suckers on the other side charged a whopping USD75!
[quote=“citizen k”]The last time I transferred money (a couple years back) there was a transfer fee of around NT$400, no percentage. The kicker was that the receiving bank also levied another transfer fee (@ CDN$28) for having the money transferred from their international banking division into my local account. Since then, I’ve sworn off transfers and just carry cash back and deposit it into my account myself. No fees, no surprises. You don’t have to worry about declaring it, as long as it’s under ten grand, but even with more, I’ve never had trouble.
CK[/quote]
Regarding a fee on the other end. It depends on the banks you are dealing with. Hua Nan to Royal Bank of Canada don’t charge. On the other hand Hua Nan to CIBC in canada with charge on the other end. Best to ask the bank about that and then open an account at a bank with a reciprical transfer policy.
Ski
Another option is to send yourself / family a cheque and then deposit it. Usually cheaper in terms of drawing fee and other fees at your ‘home’ country end.
You may need to document where this money came from, if it’s a LARGE amount, as money laundering laws are tightening up.
Kenneth
NT$300,000?
12000Cnd
Is that an issue?
Shouldn’t be any problem at all. They’ll just make you fill in the standard declaration about remittance from Taiwan and the conditions that apply, and away you go.
I’m in the same situation, but I’ve been hoping the NT will drop some more.
General question for everyone: How low will it go? Has it already hit bottom? I’ve set my target price. Just curious to see what others think.
Cheers,
CK
I need to clarify something I said earlier: firstly it wasn’t USD75 but USD85 and secondly it was not charged by the receiving bank (I wired to myself) as I found out recently after ‘investigating’.
In fact I would have been surprised that they would charge such a high amount.
So where did the money go? Well, I just went to Citibank and initially they couldn’t answer it, saying it would be their transaction fee (no, since I paid NTD600 from my NTD account and had the slip to prove it). Then it must have been the receiving bank (no again because they said they didn’t charge me a dime).
So finally they figured an additional fee was charged by Citibank New York. I argued I never wired the money to / via New York but they explained that this is due to the fact that the transaction was in USD (according to their internal procedures).
So I further argued that I wasn’t made aware of this but they pointed me to the remittance form which mentions something like “If any additional service charge being charged by the correspondent bank or beneficiary’s bank, …”. Now the beneficiary’s bank is clear and I am aware that they may charge (in my case they didn’t as explained) but I never knew that “correspondent bank” refers to another Citibank, the bloodsuckers in New York in this case.
Well, things remained friendly and I didn’t have a choice than to accept the explanation after they politely declined my request for a refund; they did however apologize a million times and gave me a small gift (not worth USD85 though, rather USD0.85 …), also promising to improve the form and explaining it better to foreigners.
Have already enquired at HSCB, they also charge that fee but less (it’s percentage based) and ‘only’ require you to have NTD150,000 (compared to NTD250,000 at Citibank) in the account to avoid the monthly account fee of NTD500. Will switch soon. :raspberry:
can you link a taiwan bank account to paypal?
I dropped by the iRemit office on Zhongshan N Road, Sec. 3 today. I want to remit some funds to Manila. They are charging only NT$ 200 for the remittance - today they are exchanging NT$ to the PHP at PHP 1.64 per NT$ 1, this FX rate on xe.com right now is PHP 1.63895
You have to open a Debit Card account (at a special Chinese New Year rate of NT$ 300, normallly NT$ 500), and this account has a limit - it cannot hold more than PHP 100,000 at a time (approx NT$ 60,000)
What interesting is that you can also have funds sent to other iRemit centers around the world (not just the Philippines). So if you wanted to send money to Vancouver, you instruct your counterparty in Van to pick up the cash.
I may be confusing 2 services here - the iRemit Visa Electron Card (Debit Card) or the straight Door-to-Door remittance, but it sounds worth looking into. Incidentally, the iRemit card transfer takes minutes, as opposed to next or second day.
Does anyone else have experience using these remittance services? The Bingo store nearby offers RCBC Debit cards at a competitive rate, too (RCBC is a large commercial bank in the Philippines)
Their website is here: iremit-inc.com/ so you can check your own countries. I plan to drop by again this week - if you have any specific questions you’d like me to ask, pls post them here
After debating on how to get my money back home, I think the safest and most convenient way is going to be by wire transfer. I currently have an account with Macoto (which is now actually under a new name), but am wondering if you all could give me advice on who is good to send through. The money is going to the States if that makes a difference. Sounds like HSBC is pretty high in terms of fees. Can I just go into any bank and send money or do I have to be a customer? Any advice will be much appreciated. Thanks.