Anyone have any tips for exchanging money to go overseas for CNY. I’m heading to Thailand and wondering if I should just take my NTD to Bangkok and exchange directly, or do NTD to USD and then USD to Thai baht.
Maybe traveler’s checks are a way to go for some people, but I find they’re more trouble than they’re worth. I’ve never been robbed (knock on wood) so cash is still okay with me.
Or do you just take out money with your TW ATM card when you’re overseas?
Just curious how other people manage their travel finances.
I’ve always changed NT cash into baht in Taiwan before leaving. Many banks can’t do NT->baht exchanges, but I know Mega Bank (兆豐銀行) can. I also recall seeing in Taoyuan airport’s departure lounge an exchange counter with a surprisingly good rate.
You can exchange NT directly to baht in Thailand, but you’ll get a shit rate, one that’s probably worse doing NT->$$ here and then to $$->baht there.
I always use my Chinatrust ATM card - it charges 70NTD per withdrawal and uses reasonable exchange rates. Take US$100-200 cash as back-up and you should be OK (I also take a credit card for ths purpose too). I change any spare cash at the airport just so I have enough on arrival in case there’s no ATM around (or it’s dead).
Make sure your ATM card is on one of the international networks (eg cirrus/maestro or plus) and usually you need to go to the bank to register for it to be used overseas. This can be done quickly - you just fill out a form and get a different pin for using out of the country (your Taiwan PIN stays the same). THis access is linked to the date on your ARC so you need to reapply after each time you extend your ARC, and once it expires you can’t take out the money anymore (from what I gather).
[quote=“AlexW”]I always use my Chinatrust ATM card - it charges 70NTD per withdrawal and uses reasonable exchange rates. Take US$100-200 cash as back-up and you should be OK (I also take a credit card for ths purpose too). I change any spare cash at the airport just so I have enough on arrival in case there’s no ATM around (or it’s dead).
Make sure your ATM card is on one of the international networks (eg cirrus/maestro or plus) and usually you need to go to the bank to register for it to be used overseas. This can be done quickly - you just fill out a form and get a different pin for using out of the country (your Taiwan PIN stays the same). THis access is linked to the date on your ARC so you need to reapply after each time you extend your ARC, and once it expires you can’t take out the money anymore (from what I gather).[/quote]
Thanks for the info. I’m also with Chinatrust so will probably do the same. I had an annoying experience in the Philippines before where I couldn’t use my ATM card…so next week I’ll definitely go and make sure I have international access to my Chinatrust account.
70nt isn’t a bad deal for withdrawals. Do you know the limit you’re allowed to take per day?
[quote=“alidarbac”] I also recall seeing in Taoyuan airport’s departure lounge an exchange counter with a surprisingly good rate.
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I’ll look out for that as I’ll need at least some cash to get from the airport to Bangkok. After that I think ATMs will be the way to go.
Anyone know what the daily limit for withdrawals is?
I’m not sure the actual withdrawal limit, but I took out more than 50-60000 in one day in the Philippines and was fine. The problem is more the limits on individual ATMs. In many countries such as Indonesia, The Philippines and possibly Thailand (I can’t recall) ATMs attached to major banks let you withdraw significantly more than freestanding ATMs (sometimes up to 20x more per withdrawal). You can just stand there and keep on making multiple withdrawals if you have to, although it will charge you each time and gets annoying. As someone else mentioned individual banks may also charge you a fee for use of their ATM or for international withdrawal, but this varies depending on the country and bank.
If your flight from Taoyuan is late at night, it’s likely the money changers (and duty free and food/drink/magazine shops) will be closed. I think most things close around 11pm in the airport.
What I do: assume I can use my Taiwan ATM card and visa card, but have some backup: American dollars and/ or American traveler’s checks, as well as my Canadian ATM card and Canadian visa card. I have never bothered to get hold of cash in the local currency before going to a country, and have almost always been able to use my ATM card at the arrival airport.
In India a few years ago I had to use the backup, but otherwise I’ve been fine and have always just taken money out of my Taiwan account.
Confirm and re-confirm that you can indeed use your Taiwan bank card overseas. I’ve had banks mistakenly believe I could use their card overseas.
Make sure you tell your bank (and your credit card company) where you’re going, and for how long. The card may be canceled if it’s suddenly used in a surprising location.
For reference: I can use my Fubon bank card overseas, as well as Land Bank I think; the Post Office bank account can’t be used that way. Taixin refused to give me a card I could use outside of Taiwan.
I always have $50-100 US in traveler’s checks anyway, as backup more than anything else. And it’s a good idea to have a few American $20 bills around, as well as a few one dollar bills.
Tip: always keep a separate pouch somewhere deep in your backpack, with a photocopy of your passport, a second credit card if you’ve got one, and some American money, whether cash or traveler’s check. Plus photocopies of bank cards and credit cards, to make reporting theft easier.
(I suppose this tip is a little late now. Ah well - it may come in useful for others.)
Perhaps I should post in the “Chinatrust are a bunch of useless…” thread, but they really fucked me over this time. Went through the activation process before leaving and silly me I actually believed THAT THEY ACTUALLY TURNED ON THE CARD.
Landed in BKK with 150nt in my pocket and went to the ATM and uh oh, no access to my Chinatrust account. Took a taxi to my friend’s place and luckily he sorted me out.
Ended up getting a cash advance on my AMEX card using some Global Assist service I didn’t know I even had. In the end everything worked out fine and I just borrowed cash off my sugar momma but that was total crap that the Chinatrust people dropped the ball. Good advice about confirming and reconfirming btw.
Happened to me with HSBC. And half the people I know from lots of different banks. Fortunately, I was visiting family - my friend ended up borrowing money from a stranger in an ATM queue (who by co-incidence, I knew too). Useless fafos.
I’m surprised to hear that it could happen with such an international bank like HSBC. I’m tempted to complain at the branch that was supposed to turn on my card, but don’t think it would really help anything.
Not sure how they can mess up something so badly, especially when people need access to money 24/7. A friend that works as a recruiter says that it happens to many teachers that come over and travel overseas with their TW accounts. I thought it would be such a noob thing to do but looks like I got caught with the wool over my eyes as well. :s
Why? HBCS are useless mofos. Had a premier a/c with ‘em. Utter twats. They once issued me a replacement credit card with 6 days’ validity on it because my office tarded up my ARC dates, so I had an ARC with only six months’ validity. Yes, that’s how it took to get a replacement; 5 months and 24 days, and about 30 faxes. Racist government policies, along with their spectacularly bad call centre folks (English speaking. Only not.), and general banking stupidity makes for a painful experience. One actually GIGGLED at me, while explaining she had lost my faxed ARC, AGAIN, and referred to me as ‘the foreigner’, in English. Total joke.
However, I once wrote a digit wrong on a form to transfer cash back to the UK, and the cashier (a really pleasant young woman) called me about 28 times to let me know so it would not be held up (I was in class). I really appreciated that. I wish I’d remembered her name - I really believe that great staff should be praised, rather than just piling on bad service.
Chunghua were always helpful, patient with my language skills, and efficient.
Bank of Taiwan were the worst. Don’t want to catalogue all the ways they pissed me off, but when I asked where a branch was, an unfortunate looking slug-girl in a nylon uniform shrugged and tossed a phone directory at me. I then caused disharmony.