Job Discussion Forums

[rbos]

I'm thinking of coming to Taiwan to look for work soon. I have school loans and credit card bills here in the US that I'll be paying back while I'm working in Taiwan.

I talked with a bank official here in the US yesterday, and they mentioned that, due to issues of currency exchange from Taiwanese money to US money, in order for me to quickly transfer money from a bank in Taiwan to either my bank in the US (without having to pay expensive wiring fees every time or to wait for an extensive holding period to take place) or even just to pay off a credit card bill, I will need to find a bank in Taiwan that uses routing numbers (like the ones we have here in the US), rather than a "SWIFT number" that a lot of banks in foreign countries use. Evidently, if a foreign bank has a routing number as opposed to a "SWIFT number", then it wouldn't cost me anything to transfer money in Taiwanese currency to my US bank or to pay off credit card bills.

This banker told me that upon initial investigation while browsing the internet, she could really only see Taiwanese banks that were using "SWIFT numbers." But she said that sometimes banks in other countries will have a relationship with a bank in the US, which would mean that that Taiwanese bank would also have a routing number I could use.

Does anyone know of any good banks in Taiwan that carry routing numbers, or have some sort of relationship established with an American bank?

-Thanks

[dangerousapple]

I've never heard of this. I and everyone else I know wires money back home.

[yamahuh]

Me neither.
Costs me about $15 on either end to wire home up to $500,000 NT (about $17K Canadian). Usually arrives in my account within a day or two max.

[Dr_Zoidberg]

I spent 13 years doing this for the Bank of Montreal in Toronto. Unless American banks offer free financial services, it's going to cost you no matter how the transaction is handled.

[Oriented]

The SWIFT number is a routing number. I think pretty much every bank doing any kind of cross-border business has one.

What the person at your bank may be referring to is a 'correspondent bank" relationship. That might make it easier to do such transactions, possibly meaning lower fees.

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/correspondent-bank.asp

Because of online banking etc. correspondent bank relationships have become somewhat less important than they used to be.

But the US bank should know: who if anyone is its correspondent bank in Taiwan? If the customer service person does not know that, you could check the US bank's website or try to get in touch with their corporate headquarters.