What are the best foreigner friendly banks in Taiwan?

Business Money
81

Basically the new one, they finally have a deal with local companies and also discounted cinema tickets. Still annoyed and will be following up.

Incredibly rude and unprofessional organisation overall.

82

Is it this one?
image
Is not a good card anywaysā€¦ ignore that crappy bank, just looking at their website gave me cancer.

83

Itā€™s called iLeo äæ”ē”Øå”ć€‚ You are supposed to be able to apply online. Maybe it was too much mafan to do using their app so they just refused me.

As you can see their web link requires ID to be entered .

I canā€™t ignore them, I have too many financial dealings with them. I want fairness and transparency.

84

You can apply to other First Bank Cards via this form in English and even includes an ARC field. It hasnā€™t been updated in 2021 to include newer cards but you can show them that what they are saying is bull$h!t.

85

Thanks. I already guess they are just extremely unprofessional , lazy and happy to discriminate against their customers.

This is good for me to go back to them and deal with those assholes again.

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86

Thatā€™s dumb. You have a card there already? First bank does let foreigners apply

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87

Costco only takes Cathay. The other stores like 7-11, family mart, px mart, only accept cards from banks they consider ā€œlocalā€ - so exclude the likes of SC, HSBC, Citi.

88

Does anyone know the differences between the types of banks in Taiwan and pros and cons of each?

Theyā€™re color coded here:
https://www.dbs.com.tw/iwov-resources/IB/html/bankcodelistCN.htm

From what I see thereā€™s:

  • Government owned banks
  • Privately owned banks
  • Post office
  • Cooperatives
  • Association banks

Iā€™ve only used privately owned banks and one cooperative (TW cooperative bank). Havenā€™t tried the other ones. I read a bit about the post office bank and that foreigners without ARC can open an account there.

Are Cooperatives owned by the members like they are in the states? Any real benefit to this - such as lower fees, etc.?

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89

As I understand, Taiwan cooperative is an actual Taiwan government bank, publically listed as well, not a true cooperative. They provide financing to cooperative businesses along with many others

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90

Related (a very recent discussion about recommended banks in Taiwan):

91

HSBC is a British bank. Always has been.

92

Iā€™ve never been called to ask what is the source of my funds in my HSBC HK account being transferred into a local bank account in Taiwan. Also you can just use your HSBC HK atm card and withdraw in HK$ the rate is the same as you would get with a transfer.

93

Did you make a complaint to the FSC?

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94

slightly incorrect mate, HSBC became British only around the handover, before was all HQd in HK.

It was founded by Scots in HK to provide the colony with an institution with ā€œgood old Scottish banking principlesā€.

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95

Well seeing HK was part of the UK at the time lol

96

Yeah. Someone already corrected me three years ago.

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97

HK law still different than UK law. It was a colony, not metropolitan land. Different and similar at the same time.

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98

Has anyone used iLeo? It looks like first bankā€™s digital bank version? They give 10 free ATM and inter bank transfers a month.

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99

If foreigner u canā€™t apply since u must apply for that online and guess what? Foreigner meibanfa

100

Hmm the reason I ask is because I downloaded the First Bank mobile app, and on the side menu I clicked on ā€˜č‹±ę–‡ē‰ˆęœå‹™ English Ver.ā€™ and it took me to the iLEO website