Job Discussion Forums

[ESLer]

Hey,

I'm going to be teaching in Guangzhou in September. I taught in Xi'an a couple of years ago as well as several other countries - but I've never had to send money home for monthly bills. I am now in this common situation, but I don't know how to do it in China. Given the high fees of Western Union, the fact that they only take US cash, and the percentage limit for changing RMB to US, I am wondering if there are any other options? I bank with the Royal Bank in Canada, but they have sketchy information about Asian overseas banking (they have told me many things that I know from experience are not true). GZ is close to HK, but making monthly trips just to send money may be difficult, particularily with the new re-entry Visa problems. So, any advice about sending money home? Thnx for any help!

[Anda]

As of a year ago you needed to go to a main Branch of The Bank of China with your passport and papers from your school on your salary that have been stamped by your school. The charge a year ago was 200 RMB to send any amount. The bank should keep your details so you only need to do it once unless you change where you work. Try and get Swift Bank details to make sending easy.


Sponsored LinkSWIFT processing

www.bankserv.com SWIFT service bureau and Fedwire solutions for banks and businesses
BIC IBAN and SWIFT bank transfersIt usually consists of 8 to 11 characters that adds bank identification to the details provided by the Basic Bank Account Number or BBAN . SWIFT has been ...
auctionfeecalculator.com/swift_transfers.html - 24k - Cached - Similar pages

IBAN, BIC and SWIFT transfers explainedIn brief: SWIFT bank transfers are available worldwide; SWIFT codes are similar to BIC . ... BIC + IBAN details are printed on EU/EEA bank statements. ...
auctionfeecalculator.com/iban_transfers.html - 23k - Cached - Similar pages

[hairuo]

Can you use Western Union?....a whole lot less hassle than Bank of China.

[Anda]

Western Union ChinaVisit Western Union China Today - through Agricultural Bank of China, China Everbright Bank and China Post - Send Money.
www.westernunion-cn.com/en/index.html - 20k - Cached - Similar pages

[Leon Purvis]

200 RMB? whoa. It cost me 20 RMB, and I sent 1700 RMB home last year! Somebody must have liked me!

The bank will ask you to provide a SWIFT number (as Anda said) but if you don't have one, get a routing number from your bank in Canada before you go to the bank. That's what I provided instead of a routing number. Someone in Canada should be able to help you with this. The routing number merely tells the banks where the money should go.

I didn't think that the BOC was that much of a hassle.

[ESLer]

Thanks for your help, everyone. Does anyone think that taking monthly HK trips to send money through my bank (RBC) would even be do-able?

[wulfrun]

A company in Beijing is going to be paying me a few thousand RMB each month. Anyone have suggestions about best ways to get it out of China? Right now the plan is to ask them to pay it to a Chinese friend's account, who'll then make the visit to Bank of China to make the transfer to my UK account (with IBAN and BIC number etc.).

My UK bank assured me that any bank in the world can make international transfers as long as they have the IBAN and BIC numbers. I guess they just don't know China...

[dialogger]

My recollection of last time I did this was that BOC is way cheaper than Western Union.
As mentioned elsewhere, on your first visit take your job paperwork and they'll photocopy it for reference next time you come in.
There is a form available in the public area so fill that in before you front up to the counter.
Enduring a Chinese queue is not for the faint hearted, so why do it twice. Some BOC branches now have electronic queues. Not that this stops the crashers. Infuriatingly, the tellers get drawn into conversation by the crasher, rather than direct them to the number issuing machine. Grrrr...