I wanted to open an account with HSBC, because they are known worldwide, and have a great experience with doing wire transfers.
I went to a local branch I found… and was informed that I would need to deposit $20,000 USD and also have arc status. wow!?!
So I guess the easiness of opening up an account with just a passport is fading? I need to find a bank that offers:
[*]English in some form or another: withdrawal/deposit slips… online banking.
[]Doesn’t require ARC status or the gross domestic profit of a small Island in the south pacific to open an account.
[] Capable to do wire transfers with little fuss.
Please offer me your suggestions, I would like to accomplish this on Monday.
suggestions?
I am considering a local bank, that didn’t charge me any crazy fees for doing some money exchanges… but my mandarin is far from good. Plus I really don’t want my Taiwanese girlfriend to always be with me on my banking duties as an interpreter in the future.
I use a local bank. They are great. I think you do need an ARC to open an account, but wire transfers may well be doable with a passport. Transfer forms and deposit slips are all in English and Mandarin.
Take the leap.
[quote=“kage”]I use a local bank. They are great. I think you do need an ARC to open an account…[/quote]You don’t. You can apply for an ID number anyway and use that. There’s a thread on it somewhere.
While theoretically the ID number should be enough to open an account, many banks will refuse to do this without an ARC. HSBC I think is one of them. Their HSBC Direct (not Premium) doesn’t have any deposit requirements though.
At some other banks you might be able to open an account without an ARC, but not actually use it. This is what I was told at Standard Chartered - no Internet banking, phone banking and ATM access unless I give them my ARC.
One thing you can do without an ARC is to open a post office bank account. Their WebATM has bilingual Chinese/English interface. You won’t get a debit card unless you’ve been a good foreigner (with an ARC) for at least three months or so. For other banks, I think it depends how much they’re used to seeing “foreigners.” You can try the Huanan branch at the NTU campus (with many foreign students), or something like that.
Yeah, I heard that some banks won’t give you an ATM card without an ARC, and so the limits on Internet and phone banking sound likely too. I guess you’d be stuck with going into the bank and withdrawing money on your passbook.
Often your employer will help you with this since they will want you to open a bank account in the bank that they use. This saves them time and money when they pay your salary. Don’t be surprised if you end up using several banks while you live in Taiwan.
Which HSBC service has the US$ 20,000 minimum? Sounds like HSBC Premier, but that “minimum” is only if you want to avoid bank fees.
so I need to go to the police and get a record of ID first? That should assist me in getting to open up a bank account without arc… or am I wasting my time doing that?
For the ID you need to go to the National Immigration Agency. Assuming you’re in Taipei City (not County):
Theoretically the ID is enough, but in practice they may still refuse to open an account for you. Depends on the bank, the branch you go to, the weather, etc.
I am kinda pissed at Bank of Taiwan… because their website has an entire english section… but in person… the first form I am told to fill out… not in english… kinda comical. here is the rest of the story today:
Got the ID part completed today with my girlfriend. The lady at the immigration office was very nice and was having a good time helping us.
Then I get over to Bank of Taiwan and I hit a brick wall:
first… the forms to open an bank account at Bank of Taiwan are in Mandarin…my girlfriend is helping me with it… and then a question comes up I was not prepared for:
What currency do you want to open your bank account in?
It’s 3pm and I did not want to risk making a terrible choice… so I decided to take the paperwork home… and get online.
I am a American Citizen… so USD dollars… but what about when I want withdrawal money… every time… am I going to get hit with exchange rate fees?
the bank is full of customers… and we were getting lukewarm assistance from a young lady… who I believe wanted to go home.
but it seems it would be a bit easier if I kept my currency in USD… so that I can easily see my balance.
The flipside… is NTD dollars… with a balance of a comical amount of zeros… laugh! easier to just take money out in the native currency.
Geez, I don’t know why I make questions like this seem so life changing… but can anyone give me some advice:
do I go with an account in NTD or keep it in USD?
is there something more important I am not even considering in this decision?
If this helps… I do not currently have ARC… I do not have a job, yet. I will need constant access to my money… withdrawals / deposits. wire transfers.
If you get a bank account now you might need to open a bank account at the bank your employer banks at to get direct deposit. Is there some reason that you need a bank account immediately instead of using your US based bank ATM card?
Also a foreign currency account is generally an investment account, and as such there are no ATM card or other forms of withdrawing money outside of a branch. I know this is the case with most banks, not sure if they actually have USD accounts that may be linked to a debit card or ATM card.
[quote=“dan2006”]You will get used to the currency conversion in your head after a few months.
I wouldnt get a US dollar account for daily transactions, why incur all those conversion fees?[/quote]
I’m here from the US and this is my 13th(?) day here… I’m losing track.
The conversion is already transparent to me. I’ve started to think in NT$ and I don’t worry about it all that much because nearly everything I need (choco-pies, yogurt drinks, and noodles) are really cheap in any case. Only when I’m scratching my head over big-ticket items (a new scooter at Carrefour, NT$65,000, bargain or not?) do I actually bother to do a real conversion in my head (just a smidge over US$2000, and I still have no idea if it’s a good price, but given that Vespas run $5000 at home, and Segways $2500, it seems OK at least).
I’ve been yanking ~NT$2-5 thousand out of my US-based Bank of America account once a week or so. I get hit with an NT$100 fee here usually for the ATM, and about the same at home from BoA. For that reason, I’m trying to take out bigger amounts at once, stashing all but NT$1000 at a time in the safe here in the suite.
Why make it harder than you have to? If my family had the spare cash laying around (we don’t), I would have just taken NT$20,000 out all at once. I love not using my card here and in fact have been leaving it and my passport in the safe.
[color=#FF0000]Moderator’s note: I deleted the double post.[/color]
I brought cash with me… because I had a terrible incident in Europe once regarding my ATM card being eaten by the machine because it thought something fraudulent was going on…although I informed my bank I was traveling. So I either pay in cash or use a credit card for large purchases. Yes I am in a safe area, but I would like my money to be collecting some kind of interest rate no matter how little it is.
I guess based on the opinions on here, I should go with NTD instead USD for ease of paying bills, and withdrawals for purchases instead of - withdrawaling USD… and then exchanging that each time.
I hope their ATM Machines are very simple to use… and I can get to English prompts.
Still scary putting money into another countries bank… but I guess it is pretty stable here… its not like we are in Congo or Argentina, Venezuela.
Really? I’ve got a GBP account with Changhwa Bank, using my ARC without a guarantor. I’ve also been offered one at Land Bank, who are not a very foreign-friendly bank at all.
I brought cash with me… because I had a terrible incident in Europe once regarding my ATM card being eaten by the machine because it thought something fraudulent was going on…although I informed my bank I was traveling. So I either pay in cash or use a credit card for large purchases. Yes I am in a safe area, but I would like my money to be collecting some kind of interest rate no matter how little it is.
I guess based on the opinions on here, I should go with NTD instead USD for ease of paying bills, and withdrawals for purchases instead of - withdrawaling USD… and then exchanging that each time.
I hope their ATM Machines are very simple to use… and I can get to English prompts.
Still scary putting money into another countries bank… but I guess it is pretty stable here… its not like we are in Congo or Argentina, Venezuela.[/quote]
But are you planning on getting a job in the next month or two? Because then you’ll have to open a 2nd bank account (likely).
And an ATM card can be mailed in a matter of days (likely thru a family member) and you have a VISA card as a backup (with its higher fees). This happened to me while traveling in south america and it really isn’t the end of the world.
sorry to say that this is Taiwan so yes, application forms will generally be in Chinese. I don’t know of any banks that provide an official English service beyond any particular employee being helpful on a particular day.
local banks will give you a basic account with a passport + police ID number
wai shang (foreign) banks such as HSBC are not suitable, they generally require a higher income/savings, ARC and/or monthly fee in return for more specialized services
foreign curreny accounts are not used as checking accounts, they are held by people who frequently make transactions in that currency without changing to NTD and/or make currency investments. You cannot withdraw NTD directly from a currency account anyway, you would have to transfer from USD to NTD first.
your primary account should always be NTD, you can add as many currency accounts as you want later
For example I hold a Euro account because I frequently get payments (and make payments) in Euro… also since Euro fluctuates a lot (sometimes going way up when I least expect it) I always keep some money in Euro just in case…
