Job Discussion Forums

Fanyi · Joined: 01 Nov 2011 Posts: 47

Right, but OP said he's not coming back...BTW, going the other way, I'm pretty sure that BOA has a deal with China Construction Bank where there are very low (or maybe even zero) fees (I know there are no fixed fees, but not sure if they take a cut from the exchange rate or not) for withdrawals from BOA account using CCB ATM-this has saved me a lot of money.

GreatApe · Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 12:27 am Post subject:

Non Sequitur wrote:

weigookin74 · Joined: 30 Mar 2010 Posts: 265

I know this sounds like a stupid question, but you can't just go to the bank and wire some money out of your account back home? In Korea, I go every month and wire money home. What's the deal in China? Can you just get your boss to send it home for you?

Sounds very complicated.

amemorylost · Joined: 22 May 2009 Posts: 29

The issue is that the Chinese government want to limit the amount of money leaving the country, and do so in a variety of ways via the banking regulations.

Firstly, you cannot wire RMB to a foreign bank account and have your bank convert it: you must first convert your RMB to a foreign currency and then have that wired to the receiving bank account. If you are foreign, there is a daily limit on how much you can convert (500 dollars). If you are Chinese, there is no daily limit (or at least, it's often ignored). Therefore, if you are foreign and want to wire a large amount of money home without transferring it to a Chinese friend's account to transfer for you, you need to periodically convert your money to the desired currency.

Transferring itself is a pretty simple process so long as you go to a branch with staff who know what they're doing.It can be astonishing how many different answers you can get from Bank of China employees and helpline staff, but once you find that one good branch in a dozen, it's pretty painless. Just be sure to check the SWIFT code of the bank you're sending to and the IBAN code of your bank account.

For reference, I recently transferred 80,000rmb to a UK bank account and paid a 230rmb (or thereabouts) fee in total for the conversion + transfer. Bank of China offered a pretty good rate and it took 2-3 days for the money to hit my UK account.