Citibank Beijing

Posted by lovemy2children2000 (1010 days ago)

Has anyone used Citibank in Beijing? Does the staff speak English? I hear there is a new branch in Kerry Centre.

Also for anyone who does money transfer from a foreign account (ours is in Canada) to Beijing account, how is the exchange rate?

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Posted by profiterolle (1007 days ago)

I would be very surprised if you could not find someone at a Citibank branch that could not speak English. I transfered money once through them many years ago and was happy with their service. Why not simply call and ask?

As for exchange rates, I assume you mean for Canadian dollars, which I don't know anything about. If you can, I would suggest you open a foreign currency account and then change your money as needed. Foreign banks allow US dollar accounts and may allow other currencies. Again, just call and ask.

Since the RMB is still pretty much pegged to the dollar at around 7.9 to 1, there should not be much surprise. (Street value, I think, is around 8.01, maybe slightly higher.) A state owned bank like BOC (which also allows US dollar accounts) might give a miniscule higher rate than Citibank or HSBC. However, keep in mind that not all state banks and not even all branches can change foreign currency. It was not even till very recently that HSBC could change dollars to RMB.

Accessing money from abroad is pretty easy too. Many (if not most) ATMs, even those of Industrial Bank, will accept foreign cards. Just check to see if there is a Cirrus or some other logo you recognize. If you have a Citibank or HSBC account abroad, there is no charge to use their ATMs in China. At HSBC the free service is limited to 3000 RMB per day from one of their ATMs. I don't know about Citibank. If you need more than that for one day, you can always go next door to a BOC ATM and take out more.