Banks in Beijing

Posted by lovemy2children2000 (891 days ago)

I went into a Bank of China to open an account and all their forms are in Chinese and staff do not speak any English! Is it the same with other banks? Any English speaking banks with lots of branches in Beijing? Also, are ATMs all in Chinese as well?

We need a bank account opened in Beijing so that hubby's company can transfer in funds from USA every month for our daily living use.

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Posted by profiterolle (891 days ago)

From my personal experience, branches of the Bank of China are generally run well. If you go to one of the larger branches you are likely to find someone there who speaks enough English for you to get by.

However, several years ago I had horrible experiences getting money wired through them. Wire transfers that should normally take one, maybe two days at the most, instead took over a month to clear. I've met a number of people who had similar problems and I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't an unofficial practice of delaying foreign currency transfers through BOC for nefarious reasons. (Once when I was in line at a BOC branch in Haidian, there was a line of foreigners all complaining about wire transfers that were mysteriously taking weeks to clear. Back in the day when the street price for dollars was much higher than the official rate, there would be "private" money exchangers standing next to the gaurds in almost all the BOC branches I went to. Once when I was in line at a BOC, one of the most reliable "private" exchangers walked in and was cheered by all the bank workers. In one hand he had at least 15 thousand US dollars in hundreds and in the other a large bag of oranges, which he distributed to all the employees. I've even had BOC guards ask me, while I was waiting in line, if I wanted them to call a "private" exchanger for faster service.)

I'd suggest you use HSBC or Citybank. The staff at HSBC is almost annoying in their persistence to try and speak English with you and wire transfers are extremely quick, usually only a day as they should be.

Posted by profiterolle (891 days ago)

In other words, wire your money through HSBC and either bank there or then deposit your money at a BOC. If you can tell me what district you are in, I might be able to suggest one. Otherwise, learning enough Chinese for simple banking needs should take you less than a day.

Posted by Neuilly (890 days ago)

Agreed with Profiterolle. I open a bank account in HSBC at China World then either bring the cash to deposit in ICBC or TT from HSBC to local bank. Honestly I found Bank of China at China World branch located at CWII B1 very inconvenient coz there's always a long queue taht you must wait for an hour to be attended to, although some staffs speak English there. Learn from my local colleagues that China Merchant Bank is the most efficient one.

Posted by lovemy2children2000 (841 days ago)

Found out that we could not link our HSBC Canada account with the one in Beijing. In fact, all foreign banks in China cannot link up their accounts from overseas. Also found out that foreign banks in China are not allowed to issue debit cards, ATM cards or credit cards! What a shocker. Basically if I open an account with HSBC or Citibank in Beijing, I would have to personally go to the bank to deposit or withdraw money. Transfering money there would mean a trip to the bank counter to withdraw money all the time. I could not even use my Canadian HSBC to withdraw money from my Beijing HSBC account at a Beijing HSBC ATM machine. Sigh.....
Oh yes....Citibank require a minimum balance of USD10,000 for regular account and USD50,000 for VIP account!
At least for now we can use our foreign ATM cards to withdraw from HSBC or Citibank machines. What is ironic is that Canadian HSBC or Citibank have absolutely no clue on these regulations here!

Posted by suec (841 days ago)

You can get an ATM from a Chinese bank as we have one which you can use in any machines.

Posted by SeKuoTe (830 days ago)

If the company is paying you in the US, why not just kep your account there if all you need is funds for daily living expenses. If your bank in the US is part of any major atm network or financial affiliaton like Sum or mastercard or visa or citi, and most major banks are affilliated, then you should be able to draw funds from your home account. My home bank is Citizens, an RBS affilliate I believe and I use my atm card to take out money from chinese atms all the time. just look for the stickers on the marquee to match up. Not every atm on the street will work, but most of those affilliated with a major chinese bank like BoC, or those located in hotels and western establishments should give you no problems. As for the language, most of the major bank atms have english options, and if not, the atm procedure is pretty similar, and thus fairly intuitive.