Job Discussion Forums

[Anda]

Could by good for a Sticky:
Well you won�t believe the following; I got my pay six days late this time but I'm used to that here now. I then got all the transfer details written down in big type to take to my local branch of The Bank of China to do a transfer of funds, along with one of my Chinese friends to translate for me.

The local Bank of China despite being in a city of one million is only a branch bank of The Bank of China from a much bigger city in the same province. You can not send money overseas here in my city from any other bank here. I have to go to the big city to do this with central bank of The Bank of China for the area of China in which I live.

I have to take the following with me to The Bank of China to have them process my TT electronic transfer of money:

My contract papers.
Salary details with official stamps.
Free tax statement from my employer.
Passport
Expert certificate.

I can tell you I was very "surprised" by all this.

[Steppenwolf]

Why is that so depressing? It's what we all know to be reality in China.

[tw]

You can transfer money using Western Union through Agricultural Bank and China Post.

[Anda]

Um, I meant surprised Mr. Steppenwolf! I wasn't paying attention to what I wrote properly, Um, spell checker actually, can't spell you see. Surprised because I'm used to being able to do a TT from anywhere in South Korea.

[Itsme]

Some countries are just a little testy about flight capital.
By scaring away 99 percent of those who are thinking about sending money abroad, that is more money pumped back into the economy.

Only the real hard core people who REALLY need to send the money are willing to go to the bank 10 different times to get various papers and spinning to the right 2 times and to the left 4 times, followed by a backflip whilst singing the Chinese national anthem with half of your larynx and your national anthem with the other half... at the same time.

[Hongkonghippo]

I remember a system I used in China called "moneygram" ?? All you need was a password at the other end to retrieve the money. Maybe you can look into this and have someone you trust at the other end deposit the money into your account.

[Itsme]

Anything sounding easy is nice in principle but after living through "accidents" in China I would much rather go through the 900 stamps. That way there is NO WAY the money could get lost.

[Anda]

Well I got to the Bank of China with all the paper work today and found that the transfer fee was 200 RMB.

I was also asked for the Swift code for the Bank I was making the transfer too. This was new to me so I'm posting it for those new to China.
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Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication

SWIFT is the industry-owned co-operative supplying secure, standardised messaging services and interface software to nearly 8,000 financial institutions in 206 countries and territories. SWIFT members include banks, broker-dealers and investment managers. The broader SWIFT community also encompasses corporates as well as market infrastructures in payments, securities, treasury and trade.

[kubulka]

Perhaps a Chinese friend/acquaintance could do the transfer for you; the Chinese can send abroad up to $20.000 per year . All you need to supply is the data (the bank account, of course SWIFT and IBAN, etc.). No one in the Bank of China is going to ask questions, on the contrary, they themselves usually suggest this course of action.

[Anda]

Thanks for the info. I am getting told that something like that must be available and even from very small towns here.

[tofuman]

Roger,

Deleted in view of clarification in Anda's post which follows.

[Anda]

Um, I edited my post as I stated above. You see, I spelled surprised wrongly and the spell checker came up with depressed and I entered it without paying enough attention.

Um, I meant surprised Mr. Steppenwolf! I wasn't paying attention to what I wrote properly, Um, spell checker actually, can't spell you see. Surprised because I'm used to being able to do a TT from anywhere in South Korea.

[Joe C.]