Best way to send money to China?

[shenzhen]

What's the deal with Pay Pal? I notice they don't have RMB as one of the currencies you can send money in. My step son is interested in doing some business on Ebay and set himself up a Pay Pal account. As an experiment I sent him $50.00 in US dollars. He said the bank in China wanted $35.00 to convert it to RMB. He ended up sending it back to me. and the charges were a little less than $5.00 I've bought stuff on Ebay from China before and never had a problem. What are we missing here?

 

 

The $35 fee is $35 too high.

I agree but is it possible what they meant was he needed to deposit $35 to have an account in USD before he could convert the money to RMB -- it is not a fee but a deposit that he would then get back when converting the $85 to RMB. I ask because the first time I sent money to my BOC account I had to deposit $20 to "set-up" a USD account. My BOC account now has three sub-accounts (USD/EURO/RMB) and everytime I update my passbook I get the balance of all three accounts.

 

Must have been a translation error. Actually, you need 15 - 20 RMB to open a passbook account in Bank of China -- or most other banks. Once you have an RMB account, it is -- by default -- also a foreign currency account.

It was not a translation error but the requirement for BOC Shandong. Nor was I the only expat to go through this experience. I was asked to deposit 20 USD meaning they expected me to give them a 20 dollar bill. When I did not have that I then have to convert RMB into 20 USD then give them the 20 USD for deposit into/opening of a USD currency account. Then they converted my USD (including the opening deposit) into RMB. At least I only had about a 0.3 % spread on my 20 USD conversion/deposit/conversion

[GDBILL]

What's the deal with Pay Pal? I notice they don't have RMB as one of the currencies you can send money in. My step son is interested in doing some business on Ebay and set himself up a Pay Pal account. As an experiment I sent him $50.00 in US dollars. He said the bank in China wanted $35.00 to convert it to RMB. He ended up sending it back to me. and the charges were a little less than $5.00 I've bought stuff on Ebay from China before and never had a problem. What are we missing here?

 

 

The $35 fee is $35 too high.

I agree but is it possible what they meant was he needed to deposit $35 to have an account in USD before he could convert the money to RMB -- it is not a fee but a deposit that he would then get back when converting the $85 to RMB. I ask because the first time I sent money to my BOC account I had to deposit $20 to "set-up" a USD account. My BOC account now has three sub-accounts (USD/EURO/RMB) and everytime I update my passbook I get the balance of all three accounts.

 

Must have been a translation error. Actually, you need 15 - 20 RMB to open a passbook account in Bank of China -- or most other banks. Once you have an RMB account, it is -- by default -- also a foreign currency account.

It was not a translation error but the requirement for BOC Shandong. Nor was I the only expat to go through this experience. I was asked to deposit 20 USD meaning they expected me to give them a 20 dollar bill. When I did not have that I then have to convert RMB into 20 USD then give them the 20 USD for deposit into/opening of a USD currency account. Then they converted my USD (including the opening deposit) into RMB. At least I only had about a 0.3 % spread on my 20 USD conversion/deposit/conversion

 

Had to have been a translation error or weak hearing aid batteries.

 

If you open an RMB account -- which by default is automatically a foreign currency account -- you only need to deposit about 15 - 20 RMB.

 

That some people don't know this and go into BOC thinking they have to open a special account for foreign currency. Looks like that's what BOC thought you were doing.

 

You bought US$ cash with RMB and it was entered as cash? You need a math refresher.

[shenzhen]

What's the deal with Pay Pal? I notice they don't have RMB as one of the currencies you can send money in. My step son is interested in doing some business on Ebay and set himself up a Pay Pal account. As an experiment I sent him $50.00 in US dollars. He said the bank in China wanted $35.00 to convert it to RMB. He ended up sending it back to me. and the charges were a little less than $5.00 I've bought stuff on Ebay from China before and never had a problem. What are we missing here?

 

 

The $35 fee is $35 too high.

I agree but is it possible what they meant was he needed to deposit $35 to have an account in USD before he could convert the money to RMB -- it is not a fee but a deposit that he would then get back when converting the $85 to RMB. I ask because the first time I sent money to my BOC account I had to deposit $20 to "set-up" a USD account. My BOC account now has three sub-accounts (USD/EURO/RMB) and everytime I update my passbook I get the balance of all three accounts.

 

Must have been a translation error. Actually, you need 15 - 20 RMB to open a passbook account in Bank of China -- or most other banks. Once you have an RMB account, it is -- by default -- also a foreign currency account.

It was not a translation error but the requirement for BOC Shandong. Nor was I the only expat to go through this experience. I was asked to deposit 20 USD meaning they expected me to give them a 20 dollar bill. When I did not have that I then have to convert RMB into 20 USD then give them the 20 USD for deposit into/opening of a USD currency account. Then they converted my USD (including the opening deposit) into RMB. At least I only had about a 0.3 % spread on my 20 USD conversion/deposit/conversion

 

Had to have been a translation error or weak hearing aid batteries.

 

If you open an RMB account -- which by default is automatically a foreign currency account -- you only need to deposit about 15 - 20 RMB.

 

That some people don't know this and go into BOC thinking they have to open a special account for foreign currency. Looks like that's what BOC thought you were doing.

 

You bought US$ cash with RMB and it was entered as cash? You need a math refresher.

I did not go into the bank thinking I had to do this....BOC told me I had to do this. I already had an account at the bank and had already transfered money from my US bank to the account. Before they would receive the money and convert it to RMB they told me I had to open a USD dollar balance in this account. I called my wife and she talked with the Bank and verified what my secretary had translated to me.

 

I don't know why I would need a math refresher. This is China. You do what you are told/requested or else the money would still be sitting in the account unavailable to you.