For those interested in sending money to your own bank account overseas, here is my experience with both BoC and ICBC and you can decide which is better:

Bank of China:
To remit USD$2,000, I had to:

1. Have USD readily available either in my bank account or on hand.

2. Would not let me convert my RMB salary to USD unless its a direct deposit. Bringing in my salary cash in hand along with my contract, salary tax info, salary statement...all useless if its not direct deposit.

3. To start the process, must convert the USD$2,000 to RMB first then they convert the RMB back to USD to make the transfer. Lost USD$23.97 for this double conversion.

4. BoC New York is the intermediatary bank that processes this transaction. They deducted USD$15 for their commission.

5. Total fees paid to BoC China for TT and commission fee is RMB200.

Total actual cost for transaction...back when the exchange rate was 7.6793 RMB/USD (last time I sent money overseas)...RMB500.46 (or RMB474.79 based on 7 RMB/USD).

ICBC
To remit USD$4,000, I have to:

1. Have USD cash in hand or in my ICBC foreign exchange account.

edit: Correction - I had USD in my forex account when I first did this. If I brought USD cash in hand or if it was in my ICBC USD cash savings account, then I had to pay a fee to place it in my forex account to remit overseas via online banking.

2. To convert RMB salary (cash in hand) to USD, bring in proof I paid income tax, my salary info, contract, and passport.

3. Deposit RMB salary into my bank account first, then convert it to USD to be moved into my ICBC foreign exchange account. Their conversion rate is whatever it is that day. No double conversion needed.

4. Submit the remittance form in the bank, or submit the request via their online service. Submitting it online is slightly cheaper than in-person at the bank. To do it online, I had to subscribe to their online service and buy a USB key for RMB60.

5. Complete the form online and submit it. Total cost for transaction (not counting USB key purchase) including commission and TT fee is RMB122.97.

6. No intermediatary bank in the US to charge you commission.

Total cost...RMB122.97

****************************************************

You've got to make your own decision, but I'll be switching over to ICBC.

Helpful info. Will keep it in mind. There may come a day when we've run out of friends to sell RMB to that can PayPal USD to our US account.

PayEnemy takes a bigger chunk than BOC. I wish they'd go out of business. Have been forced to use them twice and think their exchange rates are obscene.

How about ANZ? Anybody use them to send money overseas?

Similar experience with ICBC.

Wife says BOC sucks.

What if I had USD in hand, deposit it to my ICBC and remit to a US bank, what's the process and fees associated?

And also, same question, but with HSBC China remitting to HSBC USA?


Thanks,

Actually just experienced this with ICBC, and it kind of makes sense as to why BoC charges me as much as they did when I brought USD in to TT out. BUT, I'm positive ICBC is still cheaper than BoC in the same scenario.

When you bring in USD to remit to your bank in the US, ICBC (or any bank in China) will charge you a (not knowing the proper terminology) conversion fee of RMB8.2 (depending on the exchange rate that day) per USD100. This conversion fee is essentially the difference between the USD/RMB buy and sell rates. When I did this, I had to convert USD1,500 that was sitting in my foreign currency savings account to my foreign exchange account...and it cost me roughly RMB130. Once its in my forex account, I can TT the funds out and the fees I mentioned above applies. In this case, my total fees would have been around RMB250 from ICBC, and another USD10-15 from my bank in the US.

I've looked in to HSBC before and I think their fees are just as expensive as BoC. However, if you have a Premier account then you can perform an online transfer for free. Unfortunately to have a Premier account you will either need to have RMB500k in their savings account, or pay RMB300 per month if its below that. Perhaps others who have an HSBC account can chime in on the actual cost to remit overseas.

By the way, my bank in the US is HSBC. If that's what you also have in the states, then most of the fees I mentioned from BoC and ICBC will probably apply.

^^ In the US, I have Citibank and HSBC.

My HSBC account is Premier btw. So if I had USD in the HSBC account, I can just remit it out without any hassle?

You can check with HSBC in Shanghai on this, but the last time I talked to them they said if I had a Premier account anywhere else in the world, then I can open a Premier account in Shanghai free of charge and without having to meet the minimum balance requirement.

And yes, from what I have read here, you can remit overseas using HSBC's online services without any TT fees. Its best for you to ask HSBC if there are any other fees...like the fee I had to pay ICBC to deposit USD cash into the foreign exchange account.

HI Folks,

I need to remit money back to Singapore. Which bank is better with good rate and lowest processing fee? We have BOC, ICBC, HSBC, Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore.

Do I need to open an account in Shanghai? What documents need to be submitted to the bank?

Thanks a lot for the information, that makes me stay with ICBC i think. In fact if BoC will not even change RMB brought along with all the paperwork-proof, that REALLY sucks. I will soon ask for all informations related to remitting money abroad in my ICBC branch (as the sooner mentioned 500 USD daily conversion limit) and post an update. Thanks again MoM!!

designer79 wrote:Thanks a lot for the information, that makes me stay with ICBC i think. In fact if BoC will not even change RMB brought along with all the paperwork-proof, that REALLY sucks. I will soon ask for all informations related to remitting money abroad in my ICBC branch (as the sooner mentioned 500 USD daily conversion limit) and post an update. Thanks again MoM!!

To be fair, I believe all banks in China require documents to convert RMB to USD if you want to convert more than just USD500 per day.

The only disadvantage I experienced with BoC is that in order to convert my RMB salary to USD, I had to have had my salary direct deposited into my passbook account. I had all the other documents ready to give them, but they refused to process it without the direct deposit. When I went to ICBC, having the documents and RMB in hand was all they needed...less hassle, and cheaper to remit than BoC. That, and I couldn't do it online...had to go to the BoC branch to fill out the form and have them process it for me. Just make sure when you do convert it that they deposit it into your foreign exchange account (xian hui) instead of your cash savings account (xian qiao).

Was thinking if its possible to have a local come to the bank with me to exchange the RMB into USD using their ID, and then have the bank deposit it directly into my forex account without incurring any fees. This would certainly bypass any documentations I would need to prove its my salary, and wouldn't have to pay any conversion fees.

MoonOverMiami wrote:You can check with HSBC in Shanghai on this, but the last time I talked to them they said if I had a Premier account anywhere else in the world, then I can open a Premier account in Shanghai free of charge and without having to meet the minimum balance requirement.

And yes, from what I have read here, you can remit overseas using HSBC's online services without any TT fees. Its best for you to ask HSBC if there are any other fees...like the fee I had to pay ICBC to deposit USD cash into the foreign exchange account.

Yes, once you qualify for Premier, you're Premier worldwide.

I'll try to remit to my HSBC in the states and see if there are any fees associated.

I think in general though, Citibank has better exchange spreads.

Hey guys,

I know i am reviving an old thread, but i am wondering if this still works?

I will send 2k USD next week and need help/specifics from those who has done this.

1) I will bring a friend to exchange RMB to USD. A bank teller told me to do this, because less hassle for everyone (and Chinese citizens can exchange up to 5k USD per day).

2) Once after i exchange, i will then deposit the USD into my ICBC account.

3) Go home and do the wire transfer to my US account via ICBC website (with my USB in hand).


I am wondering if these are the correct steps and procedures to get the funds in my personal bank account? I can use paypal, but the issue with that is the 5% total fee.. And that adds up!

If someone critique on the list i provided (aka the situation i will go through), it would be great. I would love to find out if there are any missing steps/hidden things to worry about. Such as if the remittance form i have to fill out at the ICBC bank, just to have it on file or something for any transaction via remittance? AKA, do i have to fill out any remittance form if i want to do this online?

Thank you!