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ChunLi
Raver
Joined: Aug 11, 2003
Posts: 384
Location: Shanghai
Status: Offline
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 Posted:
Apr 14, 2005 - 10:36 AM |
 
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| Post subject: Wiring Money Out of China - How do I do it? |
Hi All,
I searched for this topic and got 133 threads, however, none of them have "wiring" in it so I decided to start one....
Anyways, I want to wire money to the states, but people told me I can't covert RMB to USD. Therefore, does this mean I have to exchange the money myself, and then give it to some bank and have them wire it for me?
What is the safest way, what is the best bank? Bank of America on Nan Jing Road?
Can someone please help me? |
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emilytt
Reacher
Joined: May 06, 2004
Posts: 279
Location: xiangyang lu
Status: Offline
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Apr 14, 2005 - 10:43 AM |
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maybe u can use paypal with your credit card?? |
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gfo68
Reacher
Joined: Jan 17, 2004
Posts: 279
Status: Offline
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Apr 14, 2005 - 11:08 AM |
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Go to any Agricultural Bank of China. They all have Western Union, but if you find a large branch you will probably get someone who speaks english. At this bank you can Western Union money anywhere in the world for a fee (not too large). They will convert RMB to Dollars at the normal exchange rate and then you can send it as you see fit. I have done this many times and never had a problem.
Also, if you have a credit card you can always use the western union website to send money.
Later,
gfo68 |
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Neroccio
Barker
Joined: May 12, 2004
Posts: 192
Status: Offline
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Apr 14, 2005 - 12:51 PM |
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tried 2 Western Union branches a few months ago but they refused to exchange RMB for USD without an exchange recipt showing I had bought the funds into china origionally... gfo68 can you tell us which branch you went to? |
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ChunLi
Raver
Joined: Aug 11, 2003
Posts: 384
Location: Shanghai
Status: Offline
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Apr 14, 2005 - 01:44 PM |
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If that happens, couldn't we just exchange the money ourselves and go to the western union is a wad of USD and tell them to wire this into an american account? The thing is, I have credit card bills to pay and I want to wire them into a relatives account in the states and have them write a check to Visa for me. |
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Neroccio
Barker
Joined: May 12, 2004
Posts: 192
Status: Offline
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Apr 14, 2005 - 02:54 PM |
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getting it out is easy, it's the exchange that can be tricky, only ways I have managed it is jumping through the hoops at BOC (two forms to fill out and a copy of contract, residency permit, passport, visa, permission letter signed by company directors, and tax slips to the value of the transfer), or someone maybe able to direct you to an "unoffical" money exchange.... am getting a RMB international credit card shortly to avoid the headache of paying off visa bills from my card from home. |
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benkloepfer
PopStar
Joined: Sep 02, 2004
Posts: 1041
Status: Offline
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Apr 14, 2005 - 03:24 PM |
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Neroccio is right, the only official way to do it is go to your bank here in China (hopefully the biggest branch you can find) and present them with all this paper work. I use the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and they are pretty incompetent but are able to exchange and send my money after staring at all this paper work for about an hour.
The process if very slow, but the money arrives quite quickly.
I also applied for an RMB credit card but could only get one with a 5000 RMB limit because I don't own a car or home. |
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ChunLi
Raver
Joined: Aug 11, 2003
Posts: 384
Location: Shanghai
Status: Offline
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Apr 14, 2005 - 03:27 PM |
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You can only get credit cards after you buy housing or something like that I heard?
So it really is that annoying to wire money out?
2 Forms
Copy of contract (Company contract or what?)
Residency Permit (Those little brown or green books?)
Passport
Visa
Permission Letter (Saying what? "Yes, she can wire money to the states") ??
And "unofficial money exchanges" are quite dangerous aren't they? |
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GeorgeBG
Seeker
Joined: Apr 12, 2005
Posts: 68
Location: Sofia
Status: Offline
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Apr 14, 2005 - 03:41 PM |
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The plus side of unofficial exchanges is that you can get a better deal for your RMB than the official 8.28 yuan/dollar rate. At least this is what I am hearing. (Don't know whether it's true for Shanghai). With all the talk of a possible yuan revaluation in the future, the RMB is getting more valuable on the black market. |
_________________
有志者, 事竟成 |
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benkloepfer
PopStar
Joined: Sep 02, 2004
Posts: 1041
Status: Offline
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Apr 14, 2005 - 03:50 PM |
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Yes, yes and yes
2 Forms
Copy of contract from the company you work for, showing your salary
Resid. Permit, the limit green book
Passport with Visa
Permission letter says basically that you are in good standing with the company and they give you permission to send exchange money because you need to send it overseas to pay for little Timmy's operation.
Work Permit wounldn't hurt either (the little red book).
AND, not to forget, a copy of the receipt from payment of your income taxes! (your company must provide you with this one too) |
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Neroccio
Barker
Joined: May 12, 2004
Posts: 192
Status: Offline
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Apr 14, 2005 - 04:25 PM |
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Applied for BOC international credit card with USD4000 credit limit, all they wanted was photocopy of passport and bank book along my three last tax recipts to confirm salary. Supposedly jsut have to rock up next week to pick it up. Payments can be made in RMB by bringing monthly statement in person at any BOC branch. It still sounds too easy to be true so will probably post an update to this once I get it to confirm what the story is. |
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ChunLi
Raver
Joined: Aug 11, 2003
Posts: 384
Location: Shanghai
Status: Offline
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Apr 14, 2005 - 05:20 PM |
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Ben - That is SOOOOO annoying!!!!
*Shakes Fist!*
GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
All this just to send money Western Union.....
The Yuan evaluation is not that near in the future I heard, at least a few years. |
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thinker
Lurker
Joined: July 06, 2004
Posts: 36
Status: Offline
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Sep 23, 2005 - 04:39 PM |
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I just spent 6 hours trying to do this so let me save you some time.
Based on posts here I visited westernunion.com to find a list of agents. Searching in Shanghai I got a long list. I searched the list by postal code to find the branches that were close to where I live. These were inside Agricultural Bank of China.
All 3 ABoC had been closed. I don't know the last time Western Union updated that list.
I went back to the westernunion website and found the branches close to where I teach. One was closed for remodeling (near Fudan U) and the other looked like it never existed.
Fustrated, I returned to the westernunion website and looked for ABoC near People's Square. The location was 819 Nanjing Rd. There wasn't a ABoC in sight.
Now very fustrated I went walking towards the Bund. I found another ABoC near the 200 Block of Nanjing Rd. I went in and was told by the security card that they are closed for lunch (it was 11:30) and they would reopen at 1:30.
I went to the foreign language bookstore, killed 2 hours and returned.
The security card greeted me again and gave me a form to transfer USD to RMB. I told him I wanted to send USD to America. He left and returned with a Western Union form. Progress at last.
As I completed the form I realized that this was for a personal transfer (no banking information like SWIFT code) so i explained to the guard and then a teller that I wanted to put my money into my US bank account. She explained that it was impossible there and I would have to go to the Bank of China.
I walked towards the Bund and went to the Bank of China that is located behind the Peace Hotel.
I went to a terminal, pressed that I wanted to make an international transfer, and got a number.
I waited about 10 minutes until my number came up. At the window I was told that I needed to go to the end of the windows to do this transaction. A security guard escorted me to the far end of the bank and started to press the same button on a different terminal to give me another number.
I said, NO, that is what I pressed before, and I see a stack of papers on a ladies desk that looks like a transfer form. i walked over, look at one, see that it has SWIFT code information, and said, I want to do that.
About 10 minutes later I'm back at another window finishing up the transaction. I had to re-complete the form 1x because they wanted it complete with block letters. I guess the guy in the back can't read lower case English.
They told me that I needed to open a BoC account if I wanted to have the fee reimbursed. I told them I didn't want a BoC account and she said that if I want to transfer the money I must. So I said ok. However, the issue never was brought up again. I waited 20 minutes for confirmation that the money was transferred. It cost about 250 RMB to send $500.
So, my advice is to go to the BoC near the Bund. Take your passport, US dollars, banking account number, SWIFT code of your bank, address of your bank. Walk to the back of the bank and look for a stack of forms that say, Application for Telegraphic Transfers (Overseas.)
Write in only CAPITAL letters. Be patient. This was a long day for me. The next time I expect it to be much shorter. |
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emilytt
Reacher
Joined: May 06, 2004
Posts: 279
Location: xiangyang lu
Status: Offline
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Sep 23, 2005 - 05:40 PM |
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I've been using PayPal and it works out perfectly. Skip all the red tape hassel as well. |
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dfoo
Post Roaster
Joined: Jan 19, 2005
Posts: 4693
Status: Offline
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Sep 23, 2005 - 06:04 PM |
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I've used the blackmarket guys a few times. No problem whatsoever, and is SO much simpler.
How exactly are you using paypay to convert RMB to USD? |
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selahbr8.com
Barker
Joined: Sep 03, 2005
Posts: 171
Location: LuJaiZui, Pudong Shanghai
Status: Offline
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Sep 23, 2005 - 07:13 PM |
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i too am interested in how your paypal account can receive RMB. is a chinese paypal account?
I have heard that you cannot do this, I would be interested in how the process is done, considering I have an affiliate online business in china, If I can move my revenue from China to PayPal.com then a whole of my problems are solved.
Murray
helping people making money online through affiliate marketing |
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emilytt
Reacher
Joined: May 06, 2004
Posts: 279
Location: xiangyang lu
Status: Offline
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Sep 23, 2005 - 07:36 PM |
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PayPal doesn't convert the currency. You need to have credit card account or saving/checking acount to go with your PayPal account. If you are wiring RMB to the US, I suggest using credit card account for PayPal. Quite some banks in China now have so-called international credit card. You can simply put RMB into your account and wire the money from PayPal to the receiver in USD, then the bank will take the RMB away from your account based on the current exchange rate. PS. The receiver needs to have a PayPal account too.
As for receiving RMB - No need to go through PayPal. just give away your bank account info (bank name, account number and account holder's name), money can be wired into your account then. It always works for me when I received USD from US and Europe. Recommend Shanghai Pudong Development Bank as they charge nothing for receiving it. ICBI charged $10 for each wire. Just open a saving account in the bank and tell them to activate the USD sub account. |
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imafan2
Barker
Joined: Aug 18, 2005
Posts: 157
Status: Offline
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Sep 24, 2005 - 08:16 PM |
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I will be trying this in a month or so. But the least I can say is all this is very intimidating. With the amount of bragging that goes on about economic reforms and development in this part of the world, it is hard to imagine that a transaction many of us take for granted can be a real pain in the rear end.
Well, hoping for the best when I get there!
PSX |
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da_yinjing
Squeeker
Joined: Mar 26, 2005
Posts: 19
Status: Offline
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Sep 25, 2005 - 06:28 PM |
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How about this solution? Go to HSBC in Hong Kong, open an account, put your RMB or USd into the account, mail your bank card back home to a relative and have them take money out from an ATM......will this work?? I'll probably try this in the future |
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dfoo
Post Roaster
Joined: Jan 19, 2005
Posts: 4693
Status: Offline
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Sep 25, 2005 - 08:18 PM |
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The problem isn't wiring out foreign currency -- thats very simple. The problem is converting RMB into the foreign currency. |
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chingy
Talker
Joined: June 03, 2005
Posts: 108
Status: Offline
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Sep 25, 2005 - 08:30 PM |
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There is a guy that sits next to the foreign exhcange window at my bank on Huai Hai road. He seems to be there everyday exchanging money for people. He has rates sheets and talks to just about everyone who comes in to exchange money. It's hilarious because the bank staff act like they don't know anything about what he does. |
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dfoo
Post Roaster
Joined: Jan 19, 2005
Posts: 4693
Status: Offline
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Sep 25, 2005 - 08:35 PM |
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Yes, this is the so called "black market" guy -- pretty dangerous huh?. Likely he kicks back some money to the bank manager. |
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riversandlakes
Seeker
Joined: Dec 01, 2005
Posts: 46
Status: Offline
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Dec 09, 2005 - 05:32 AM |
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Interesting thread. So the problem with earning RMB is that it is not directly exchangeable to other currencies? But the other way round is business as usual? |
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mhuang74
Newbie
Joined: June 12, 2005
Posts: 7
Location: Shanghai Hongqiao
Status: Offline
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Dec 15, 2005 - 11:50 AM |
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Yes, that is exactly right. China wants foreign money to come in to capitalize the development, but forbids profits from leaving easily. It is the same for all FDI. That is why companies are forced to "reinvest" their profits to expand capacity in China. If you think China is playing fair with foreigners, think again...don't even want to get started on all the listing of questionable state owned enterprises on NYSE.
The situation hits home when you start thinking about investing in Chinese real-estate. What would you do with all that RMB rent or capital gain from selling your property? How could you use that RMB to pay the 2nd mortgage taken out in US that finance the purchase in the first place? I have a lot of US friends asking due to anticipated rise in RMB in 2006. Has anyone figured this out ?? |
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riversandlakes
Seeker
Joined: Dec 01, 2005
Posts: 46
Status: Offline
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Dec 15, 2005 - 11:03 PM |
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Thanks for the input, mhuang74. It opens my mind just that little bit more 
However, many posts here talk about a sort of "backdoor" in HK? Where RMB can more easily converted to hard currencies?
Well, financial articles say the anticipated raise will be right before the US Congress votes whether to slap tariffs - about +-1%, so not much joy there too... |
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