Originally Posted by
KIXman
So far Merchants Bank has been good to me. The staff of the place I visited were very friendly and helped me set up a bank acount with them with almost no paperwork required. Also transactions with them so far have been quick and easy.
I've only started recently so I haven't had much experience with them; the problems I've had so far are the super high currency conversion rate that they charge when I get my overseas salary converted into RMB, and that I have to do the conversion manually each month by visiting the bank. (It's remitted into my account but it stays as yen. I don't know if there's a way to automatically have it converted or if I can do it online.)
You need to ask. I know with HSBC China, there is online capability for retail customers to convert forex to RMB, but you have to do an initial in-person setup at a branch and have them activate this online feature. But once you have it, it's great. However, still subject to the US$ equivalent 50K per year without special permission. I would think Merchant's has either online per your manual instruction, or a standing-order auto-conversion by the bank, or both options.