Bank of America is showing $0.1645 on their site (equivalent of y6.07). This seems low to me. I called them and asked what rate i would get charged at an ATM right now through China Construction Bank and they said they couldn't tell me (???)... anyway. What is a good rate currently to exchange at? I see posts on here from 2006-2007 when people were getting 7.98, which means market rate was probably around 8.25-8.5. Market rate today is 6.82, so i would expect to get 6.25-6.4 maybe. Just trying to figure out if I should take mostly USD to exchange or plan to use ATM.

I brought over the equivalent of a few thousand USD (combination of traveler's checks that turned out to be somewhat of a hassle and cash) for a few weeks and was able to exchange it at the Bank of China pretty easily for 6.8. Now, note that they of course charged me a transaction fee of $15USD, so it worked out in the end to be more like a 6.77 rate, but certainly still better than that BoA posted rate.

The rate is quite bizarre at the moment. I just got back and two weeks ago and bought 1000 RMB at a HSBC ATM in the customs hall at PVG for cash expenses. It billed back to my HSBC Mastercard account at C$190. The C$ was about US$1.20 at the time so it would be about US$150. (As a credit card cash advance I was charged a flat C$2 and no ATM fee, but I paid my account off a few days later and was billed just 54-cents interest.) That's about 6.7 RMB=US$1.

My room at the IC was 2,024 RMB and was billed to Amex as C$373 which would have been about US$320. That's about 6.3 RMB=US$1.

Is this because they processed the transaction at the hotel in CAD and not RMB? ie, they did the currency conversion and not the bank?

Cool, thanks guys. I plan to use my discover where ever card is usable because Discover offers no fees... however I don't know what exchange rate they will offer.

Sounds like it would be best to take more cash and plan to convert it then. y6.07 : $1USD is no good!

Unless things have changed a lot recently, it's illegal for companies doing business in China (including foreign CCs) to deviate from official exchange rates. So, while it's common to get nailed for foreign currency transaction fees of up to 3%, I've never heard of CCs employing unfair exchange rates. ATMs are also a good way to go.

Hi moondog, does this apply to hotels? I must admit I have never bothered shuttling back and forth between hotel and bank but I was always told by colleagues that the Hotel rate was not as good as the Bank rate

FWIW, I always change cash (GBP) at the nearest Bank of China where, like you said, the rate is the official standard rate

Standard rate or not, the depreciation of GBP from 13.5 to about 10.2 in 3 months is a killer....

nickyboy

Interesting. I wonder what the "rate" is though... probably still not market rate because that's the bank to bank rate for $1M+ usually. It should be better than BoA's 6.07 for sure though.

No, my credit card print outs that I signed were all in RMBs not C$s (though one of them was booked as a SPG $s and pts at US$60 per night it was billed in RMBs not US$s too). Hotel charges were Amex, so not sure how they do their conversion and I believe there is a percent or two tacked on. The credit card advance was a HSBC Mastercard.

The SPG hotel (le Royal Meridien) was RMB2,979 which converted to C$549 or US$440, which works out to be 6.77 to the US$1. I also noticed in my IC conversion above the C$ to US$ should have been closer to US$300. That would make the conversion from RMB 6.74.

BTW I doubt that the DISCOVER card would be honoured in China. It is pretty much a US credit card and not accepted very widely, not even up here in Canada.

Tell me. You should see the conversion rates of my hotels in Tokyo! When I book three months ago the C$ bought Y11000. The rate this month Was Y8000. Guess I should have used a prepaid hotel rate (though they don't always run the charge until the stay actually occurs)...

LOL, they usually just jack customer's rates double if they are 1 day late for payment.


BoA 6.07 on standard of 6.8....sounds reasonable..for "that one" bank.

Better stock up on a few cartons of Marlboro Lights..I think they are per pack USD 1.5
in China and USD 13 in UK.

Actually as far as what I've read, Discover is one of the most accepted cards there. Discover's site even has a handy printable card to help you use it:

http://www.discovercard.com/customer...allet_Card.pdf

I made a purchase with my Discover card just over a week ago and received an exchange rate of 6.813

and in a recent ATM withdrawal from China Construction bank using my BOA card I received a rate of 6.808

For those with Discover, make sure you bring that Wallet Card! I was traveling with a colleage in Beijing recently who had Discover and kept running into problems without the Wallet card. The way it was explained to me is that most Chinese businesses have two card swipers -- a China Union Pay machine and an International Card machine. Here's the catch -- Discover is considered China Union Pay, not interational; thus, you can use it almost anywhere you can use a CC (note, that isn't in too many places), but you have to make sure it is swiped as CUP.

Perfect! That is very good to know!