Might have an obvious answer but I've learned in China nothing is obvious.


Going to Laos and Thailand soon and was wondering if my Bank of China debit card would work at atms in other countries such as these (of course with a fee).


Thanks

Yes. Mine does anyway. Got money out in London last week.

I've have withdrawn money from my BoC/ICBC account using BoC/ICBC ATMs in HK and Singapore without any problems. Just the pesky limits of (I think) 4000 HKD per day.

I've used my UnionPay card in Thailand a couple of times. Laos is not on the list on the unionpay website: http://en.unionpay.com/englobalization/all_globzlization/index.html

MoonOverMiami wrote:I've have withdrawn money from my BoC/ICBC account using BoC/ICBC ATMs in HK and Singapore without any problems. Just the pesky limits of (I think) 4000 HKD per day.

Haha yes. I solved this problem by spreading the money across 3 different bank accounts so 4000 dollars per day became 12,000 per day. It's not ideal as the handling charge eats in to this as you're paying 3 times. I no longer use this method.

chingiskhan wrote:

MoonOverMiami wrote:I've have withdrawn money from my BoC/ICBC account using BoC/ICBC ATMs in HK and Singapore without any problems. Just the pesky limits of (I think) 4000 HKD per day.

Haha yes. I solved this problem by spreading the money across 3 different bank accounts so 4000 dollars per day became 12,000 per day. It's not ideal as the handling charge eats in to this as you're paying 3 times. I no longer use this method.

What in the name of hell are you spending 4,000 on a day? If you can splash that kind of cash, a handling charge should hardly be a worry.

I'm going to go back to counting up my 5 mao coins to see if I can afford to eat today.

Davexuhui wrote:

chingiskhan wrote:

MoonOverMiami wrote:I've have withdrawn money from my BoC/ICBC account using BoC/ICBC ATMs in HK and Singapore without any problems. Just the pesky limits of (I think) 4000 HKD per day.

Haha yes. I solved this problem by spreading the money across 3 different bank accounts so 4000 dollars per day became 12,000 per day. It's not ideal as the handling charge eats in to this as you're paying 3 times. I no longer use this method.

What in the name of hell are you spending 4,000 on a day? If you can splash that kind of cash, a handling charge should hardly be a worry.

I'm going to go back to counting up my 5 mao coins to see if I can afford to eat today.

It wasn't for shopping it was a very crude way of moving money from China to the UK.

chingiskhan wrote:

Davexuhui wrote:

chingiskhan wrote:

MoonOverMiami wrote:I've have withdrawn money from my BoC/ICBC account using BoC/ICBC ATMs in HK and Singapore without any problems. Just the pesky limits of (I think) 4000 HKD per day.

Haha yes. I solved this problem by spreading the money across 3 different bank accounts so 4000 dollars per day became 12,000 per day. It's not ideal as the handling charge eats in to this as you're paying 3 times. I no longer use this method.

What in the name of hell are you spending 4,000 on a day? If you can splash that kind of cash, a handling charge should hardly be a worry.

I'm going to go back to counting up my 5 mao coins to see if I can afford to eat today.

It wasn't for shopping it was a very crude way of moving money from China to the UK.

Hear hear...one way to move money out of China without registering with SAFE (at least I don't think it does).

There was one time when I did withdraw HKD$12k from one ICBC ATM through several requests (3x HKD$4k). But the next time went to HK and tried it I was limited to HKD$4k per day. Que sera sera!

Can you not just withdraw it when you're back in the UK? That's what I'm planning to do once my sentence is up in October.

Your UnionPay ATM card will work in just about any ATM in the UK now. UnionPay works at all Link cashpoints.

Anyone know the charges or does it vary from country to country?

davecamden wrote:Can you not just withdraw it when you're back in the UK? That's what I'm planning to do once my sentence is up in October.

Yes you can it's just very expensive because you have to pay 12 RMB plus a percentage (about 1%) for every single transaction and only a small amount each time so it takes time as well.

I am going to Laos soon as well. Based on what I read on travelfish, I wouldn't trust the ATMs in Laos with any card. They may dock money from your account without giving you the cash. It is recommended to take US dollars or baht in cash or travellers checks.

Yes I think Laos is certainly more of a gamble compared to say Thailand which definitely is fine for ATM stuff.

From experience, UnionPay is accepted at nearly all Citibanks. I was at the BKK airport last week and we used our BoC debit card at the Thai Military Bank (or whatever its called) just fine. However, be warned that some of their ATMs at the airport charge a fee and others don't. We found one down the hall away from the exit that was no fee.

chingiskhan wrote:

davecamden wrote:Can you not just withdraw it when you're back in the UK? That's what I'm planning to do once my sentence is up in October.

Yes you can it's just very expensive because you have to pay 12 RMB plus a percentage (about 1%) for every single transaction and only a small amount each time so it takes time as well.

Last time I was back in the UK I could withdraw 400 pounds a time using my Unionpay card (not sure if you can make multiple withdrawals each day, didn't try) at my local Santander (formerly Abbey National) branch.

Didn't check the charges but they weren't enough to give me a shock when I looked at my balance.

Don't forget you can also take 20,000rmb back to the UK in cash and exchange it at your bank.

Davexuhui wrote:What in the name of hell are you spending 4,000 on a day?

He meets fFwerff for lunch.

Get a debit card from Pingan Bank, international cash withdraw is completely free. They don't charge anything.

overh20 wrote:^

I have never seen a case where exchanging RMB outside of the Mainland or Hong Kong has resulted in anything but a painful rate of exchange. What rate would you get exchanging RMB in a UK bank?

Sorry, didn't pay any attention to the details but I did get just about what I expected, having checked the exchange rate on a couple of online currency converters.

However, I exchanged it at my local branch in Scotland. When I checked what I would have got at Heathrow Airport (Travelex?) that was indeed a shock. I didn't change it there!

(Edit: Just checked my statement...for 20,000 yuan I got 1,927 pounds. Be good to know if that was a good deal or if I should find other ways of taking my money home...)

Good to know. Thanks.

Yes, that's actually not a bad deal. I just change my RMB here and transfer as it's just easier than physically carrying 20,000 RMB and often I need to use larger amounts.

As a previous poster pointed out, Unionpay cards (I used both ICBC and Bank of Shanghai) work at Citibank ATMs and I recently used them at Citibank and HSBC ATMs in Vietnam. I also used my cards successfully at Canadia Banks in Cambodia. The Canadia Bank ATM in Cambodia gave me $US.