trueblu

As has been mentioned before: Bank of America has a relationship with China Construction Bank (CCB). This allows fee-free withdrawals, and you can withdraw a fair amount (at least 10-20kRMB/day) with the right settings on the account. This is by far the easiest and cheapest way of 'transferring' large sums of USD to RMB. And there are plenty of CCB branches in Haidian near to Beida. To open a CCB account, I think your son will need a visa that is not an L, (F/X as a student) with 12 month validity, but check on that.

When I first moved, I had to 'transfer' several thousand dollars -- rent deposit, buy stuff etc., although now, being paid in RMB, I have the opposite problem. I can say that the conversion rates are pretty good, and far better than other options that I explored.

tb

jiejie

Question #2 first: It doesn't matter--USD-RMB conversion rates are controlled and set by the Chinese government, so only the tiniest variations between banks are possible and for the amounts you're dealing with, won't matter. Therefore, choose bank on convenience and service.

Question #1: Will this be your son's final year? If so, probably not worth the trouble to set up a bank account....as long as you trust him with that sort of USD cash to travel with and do the conversion and make the payment himself. Frankly, if he's old enough to travel and go to university in a foreign country, he should be able to manage this. But perhaps your son is irresponsible, or you fear he'll take the cash and head for Tahiti instead.

If he tends to lose things or loves South Pacific beaches, then perhaps a bank account is the way to go, it's not that hard to set up. Likely though, he's going to need to do this in person in China. It won't take long to set up a bank account but may need a few days to wire over the money for the first time to a new account (allowing for learning curves on both your ends), then make the payment. So if is already in China, or can come a week in advance of when his payment is due, this could work.

The simplest bank account of the type he needs is a mixed-currency USD-RMB account that can receive the USD incoming, then when it comes in, he can convert it into RMB. The RMB can then be local-transferred (very cheap) to the university's bank, which surely is possible. Or RMB can be withdrawn and taken to the bursar's office directly. He needs to ask the right questions though, as if he wants a Chinese ATM/debit card on this account, he needs to make sure he opens up an account that can do this. Some mixed-currency accounts can't, in which case separate USD and RMB accounts are also feasible and make issuing an ATM card on the local RMB account easier. He must take his passport with him at all times for any in-person banking business. If his Chinese is not good enough to manage, he needs to take along a Chinese-speaking friend to the bank.

Location should be convenient for him, but he needs to choose a sizeable branch for setting up his accounts, that does forex (not all branches of all banks do). I'd stick with a big bank. Ideally one that has quite a few foreign student customers and routinely deals with incoming foreign wires.

FT local expat trueblu lives and works out in this area and might be able to suggest specific banks/branches based on his experience. If he doesn't show up here soon, private message him.

ETA: he beat me to the punch! And you can set up bank accounts with any visa status, but your son sounds like he has a Residence Permit based on long term student (X visa) status. One thing though: if you don't bank with BofA right now, I suggest you not bother. I think when you add up the costs and headaches of dealing with that skanky outfit (unless you plan to keep a large sum parked there in the USA account), then it would be better to suck it up, pay for one international wire fee on a single major transfer from your existing credit union to new Chinese account. Then he can use the Chinese ATM/debit to access the new RMB local account, and as backup Plan B, use the existing credit union ATM card.

jamar

Or find a bank with decent English-speaking customer service. Standard Chartered has yet to fail me on this front, but they don't have as many branches as the "local" banks.

xooz

Thanks for the quick responses! Regarding which bank to use for conversion of USD, I assumed that while the rate may be similar that fees might vary widely. perhaps not.

As for setting up a semi-permanent account, we are both here now with cash. He speaks Chinese fairly well...he studied here for about 2 years just to get language up so that he could be admitted to Peking University as an undergraduate. He has 4 more years, so we will consider your suggestions. We don't have a personal BOA account back home, so we may have to plan better and create his account later and use it for future payments.

jiejie

With 4 more years, he definitely needs a local bank account that has ability (or linked to a forex account) to handle incoming wires. Fees shouldn't differ too much for cash conversions.

roverkt

Hello, am glad I found this thread in the archives with some good tips. At the speed that things in China are changing I'm posting this in case things might be different now.

I'm moving to Shanghai and am trying to decide which bank(s) to set up an account with. I need:

- a deposit account for employer to pay my salary in CNY
- a UnionPay debit/credit card, ideally with an attractive reward scheme
- the ability to convert and transfer CNY into SGD to a bank in Singapore

Can relationships with foreign banks (like HSBC/Citi/StanChart) started overseas be extended into China, so I might benefit from lower forex conversion and transfer fees? Have heard UOB and DBS (Singapore banks) have upped their game in China in recent years.

If not, then they're not particularly appealing, and I think I'll forgo the foreign account and stick to ICBC or Merchants Bank.

Thanks in advance.

trueblu

If you have/ qualify for HSBC premier, I believe that can extend to an account in China (I don't know from personal experience, since don't qualify!).

Unless you are a Chinese national, getting a CC is not easy, and not worth the hassle imo. All accounts will get a debit card, which won't have a rewards option. Your employer should be able to transfer money to most banks, but e.g. mine (a university) strongly encourages all employees to open an account in one of two (Chinese) banks for the purpose. Not sure what would have happened if I had decided against doing so!

All banks can transfer money overseas, but actually doing so is not that easy or straightforward, I tend to take cash with me when travelling. Of course, if you are getting paid serious amounts, that's probably not practical. Do note that the amount of your pay that you can convert to foreign currency is written into your contract, and is typically 50-80% of your salary.

tb

jiejie

I have an HSBC Premier account. HSBC operates its banks separately per country, but under the Premier banner, they can be linked. One of the great things about this account is the ability to do fee-free international wire transfers. And no ATM fees at HSBC ATM's anywhere and reimbursement of fees levied by other banks' ATMs (at least using the USA HSBC card). But Premier takes a chunk of cash to pony up unless you can get one set up under a special deal with an employer. And HSBC for regular accounts is a very high-cost bank so wouldn't be an ordinary choice. Merchants Bank would be my first choice for a local bank and if you are only doing sporadic wires into the account, the fees might be manageable.

One thing about conversion of RMB to forex and sending it out to SIN through the banking system (whether Chinese or foreign nameplate): you will need to provide certain paperwork to prove the money was legitimately earned and that Chinese income tax was paid on it. Your employer should be able to provide the correct stubs and printouts to do this. And of course your passport with residence permit. As to limitations on conversion, I think with corporate/commercial employment you can convert and send 80-100% of your aftertax income out. Verify this with your employer and your employment contract.

JPDM

Merchant Bank is very popular among foreigners and my richer Chinese friends. They are more "business oriented" than other banks. HSBC is a separate entity in China AFAIK. Their fees are quite high.

HKtraveller

I am also HSBC Premier, but for China CMB is my first choice. Get the golden card by keeping a balance of 50000 RMB. The only setback with CMB is that the English online banking is absolute crap. The Chinese version works like a charm but you need to be able to read.

Very competitive rates for overseas ATM withdrawals (official Unionpay rate plus 0.5% charge, min. 10 RMB).

moondog

My current take on the banking topic is to, first and foremost, get an account at the same bank (bonus points for same branch) as the entity that pays you the most often. This helps preempt a myriad of "vanishing wire" scenarios (e.g. I've seen rejections for reasons as silly as an extra space in the account name).

If this bank happens to be one that you like, great. If not, consider opening a second account at a friendly bank ("friendly" criteria: short lines, minimal red tape, well stocked ATMs, slick online banking, etc). Huaxia and CITIC are my friendly banks, but I also have accounts at each of the big 4 plus HSBC (not premier though).

Unlike most of you, I almost never take CNY out of China so outbound transfers aren't an important consideration for me.

HKtraveller

The nice thing about CMB (if you have the golden Sunflower card that requires a 50,000 RMB balance) is that transfers to other banks in China are free of charge, ATM withdrawals all over China free of charge.

roverkt

Thanks for the responses! I did some digging around on HSBC Premier and Citigold, and found out that I can enjoy free transfers with Citibank just as a normal account holder.

It's a service called Citibank Global Transfers.

Kinda begs the question what the point of being a Citigold member is then.. Perhaps preferential forex rates?

Some other forumers have criticized HSBC Premier/Citigold as easy ways to lock customers into buying their investment products. Am not sure if that's a fair comment.

Sunflower card at CMB sounds good too. Will try it out.

trueblu

The ability (and cost) of transferring money is not the limiting factor (for me). It's the paperwork. Some, especially expat-heavy institutions have this worked out easily. Some places (my employer) are fairly clueless, and the hassle is greater than taking chunks of cash out whenever I travel.

tb

tauphi

I don't see such a clause in my contract so it's probably not everyone.

However, if your salary is in the contract (which I think would be) and you've had a raise then yes there might be problems if you tried to change a whole year's worth of pay without supplementary documentation (e.g., a note from HR with the company stamp).

The banks have always asked me to provide actual tax receipts and they chop it afterwards to indicate how much has been used up. However, these days the tax receipts are just print-outs which you can get at any time from the tax bureau so I don't know why they still bother with the chops