I've had an ICBC account for years but never bothered to enable internet banking.

Went into a branch yesterday to do exactly that, only to be told that they still use a physical USB key (just like five years ago when I first enquired). Apparently that key is strictly Windows-only, hence ICBC internet banking can't be used on a Mac running MacOSX.

I find this extraordinary, stone-age. I'd suspect Microsoft had a back-door deal with ICBC were it not for the fact that 99.9999% of all Windoze software running in China is pirated.

Are there any banks which offer English-language, cross-platform, browser-based internet banking? If so, I will take my business there. Dongles - fuggedaboudit.

ICBC is also in english, but you're right it's a bit stone-age, they don't even support firefox, so every time i log in I have to open explorer.
Try Bank of China

Internet banking of Bank of China also only works on Windows and IE.

I doubt there is any bank here that has internet banking working on any other platform besides Windows and IE.

Coxaca, you may opt to run parallels on your Mac; or, partition your HD with one running on Windows OS. That is, if you think doing either is worth it (if only for Internet banking, unless I have a BIG need for it, I would rather not).

ICBC is utter rubbish...

I thought everyone said ICBC internet banking was amazing and you can do pretty much everything on it?

victorinchina wrote:ICBC is utter rubbish...

I disagree, ICBC internet banking is very good, can pay all my bills online and do other stuff too...

BoC uses a number generator, and you will need to enter the number each time you log in, and whenever you transfer funds.

Just updated my ICBC USB key to the Tendyron one. Its still an USB key and but then a virtual keyboard that pops up so I can enter my passcode whenever I want to conduct a transfer. Keys on the virtual keyboard are randomly placed so its different each time you plug in the USB key...feel safe when its done this way around.

rocco72 wrote:

victorinchina wrote:ICBC is utter rubbish...

I disagree, ICBC internet banking is very good, can pay all my bills online and do other stuff too...

Maybe... But their service is utter shite... I never made it as far as internet banking before both the Mrs and I had enough...

CMB all the way baby...

jet5354 wrote:I thought everyone said ICBC internet banking was amazing and you can do pretty much everything on it?

That is only in comparison to the other even shitter options.

victorinchina wrote:

rocco72 wrote:

victorinchina wrote:ICBC is utter rubbish...

I disagree, ICBC internet banking is very good, can pay all my bills online and do other stuff too...

Maybe... But their service is utter shite... I never made it as far as internet banking before both the Mrs and I had enough...

CMB all the way baby...

Does CMB have an English interface already for their e-banking? Last time I checked, which was a couple of years ago, it was still all Chinese.

That's incredibly depressing.

Well, if I am forced to use a dongle, then I may as well go with a bank that has a good English language interface. Chinese websites terrify me.

Looks like I'll have to run an emulator. Could be worse I suppose. Related question: what's the cheapest Windows emulator right now?

coxaca wrote:That's incredibly depressing.

Well, if I am forced to use a dongle, then I may as well go with a bank that has a good English language interface. Chinese websites terrify me.

Looks like I'll have to run an emulator. Could be worse I suppose. Related question: what's the cheapest Windows emulator right now?

virtualbox ............ free : )

OK, that's handy to know. Unfortunately my main reason for accessing internet banking would be to do transfers. Even without the dongle, having to use IE pretty much means I have to run Windows.

BSB, thanks for the heads-up on virtualbox, but it sounds too techy for me. I don't want to waste time setting this sh*t up. Parallels is 80 bucks - I think I'll just hit that.

victorinchina wrote:

rocco72 wrote:

victorinchina wrote:ICBC is utter rubbish...

I disagree, ICBC internet banking is very good, can pay all my bills online and do other stuff too...

Maybe... But their service is utter shite... I never made it as far as internet banking before both the Mrs and I had enough...

CMB all the way baby...

Sorry but CMB also needs IE and they do not have English web banking, so there's absolutely no advantage for this particular issue. There's no local bank that I know of that lets you use Firefox or Safari. It's nothing to do specifically with ICBC.

Agricultural Bank of China also recommends IE for online banking.