Taking money to China

[Alex]

On my last trip to Guangzhou virtually no one accepted credit cards, and it was hard to cash my American Exp. travel checks in the banks. I have been told to take cash, preferably NEW series $100.00 bills. I was thinking of doing this and perhaps taking a few 20's as well. What is your best suggestion for taking American money to China???

[warpedbored]

You are correct to take cash since the ATM machines there are not always reliable. Only a few banks will take a visa card. You can go to the Bank of China and go inside and ask for RMB and use the visa card but they charge you a percentage. Best to take cash and wear it where pick pockets cant get it.

[garagegods]

I have never been to Guangzhou but that is a good point things are very different depending on what city you visit in china. in beijing and shanghai no problem with credit cards,travelers checks, atm. What i do is bring cash,travelers checks and credit cards, ATM. dont expect to use travelers checks like cash in china!!!! go to the better hotels and exchange them for RMB as needed, its about the safest way, some banks will take them. as far as cash i had many problems using dollars on the street if they are not new most people will not take them, this is a mystery to me??? i guess they dont realize most fake money looks brand new, hahaha

good luck

[frank1538]

 I have never been to Guangzhou but that is a good point things are very different depending on what city you visit in china. in beijing and shanghai no problem with credit cards,travelers checks, atm. What i do is bring cash,travelers checks and credit cards, ATM. dont expect to use travelers checks like cash in china!!!! go to the better hotels and exchange them for RMB as needed, its about the safest way, some banks will take them.  as far as cash i had many problems using dollars on the street if they are not new most people will not take them, this is a mystery to me??? i guess they dont realize most fake money looks brand new, hahaha

good luck

Counterfeiting is a problem in China, so the slighest imperfection will result in rejection of the money despite the fact that new crisp bills may really be counterfeit.

 

I think $100 bills are the best way to go if you are going to take money and convert it there, but make sure you have clean bills or you run the risk that no one will convert it. I had a previous post on this:

 

While we're on the subject of money, I did have an interesting experience with exchanging dollars at BOC. Before I left for China, I took about $500 in hundreds with me. When I went to exchange them at BOC, the lady rejected three of hundreds (not new enough, too faded, not crisp enough). I gave her others to convert. I know this was not unusual, particularly at BOC, but that day it really bothered me.

 

As she start counting out 100 yuan notes, I kept saying "bu hao" and started rejecting her 100 yuan notes, and I demanded crisp, less faded notes. I haven't seen too many Chinese ladies blush as much as this teller did, but I figured turn around was fair play.

[Jim - Portland, USA]

 I have never been to Guangzhou but that is a good point things are very different depending on what city you visit in china. in beijing and shanghai no problem with credit cards,travelers checks, atm. What i do is bring cash,travelers checks and credit cards, ATM. dont expect to use travelers checks like cash in china!!!! go to the better hotels and exchange them for RMB as needed, its about the safest way, some banks will take them.  as far as cash i had many problems using dollars on the street if they are not new most people will not take them, this is a mystery to me??? i guess they dont realize most fake money looks brand new, hahaha

good luck

Counterfeiting is a problem in China, so the slighest imperfection will result in rejection of the money despite the fact that new crisp bills may really be counterfeit.

 

I think $100 bills are the best way to go if you are going to take money and convert it there, but make sure you have clean bills or you run the risk that no one will convert it. I had a previous post on this:

 

While we're on the subject of money, I did have an interesting experience with exchanging dollars at BOC. Before I left for China, I took about $500 in hundreds with me. When I went to exchange them at BOC, the lady rejected three of hundreds (not new enough, too faded, not crisp enough). I gave her others to convert. I know this was not unusual, particularly at BOC, but that day it really bothered me.

 

As she start counting out 100 yuan notes, I kept saying "bu hao" and started rejecting her 100 yuan notes, and I demanded crisp, less faded notes. I haven't seen too many Chinese ladies blush as much as this teller did, but I figured turn around was fair play.

Good job Frank, give 'em a taste of their own medicine!!

[oregonknl]

Yeah, Great Frank, Ha, ha!

 

When adopting in China, there is a $3,000 orphanage fee. At the time of my first adoption, the rule was that the only way they would accept that fee was in brand new US 100 dollar bills --- no old ones.

 

In what is another story, after our two year wait for my first daughter, we were told late on a Wednesday night to be prepared to catch a very early am flight to China on Friday. We thought we had it covered, since we had been packed for months, just some lose ends..

 

One of those was to get 30 new 100 dollar bills! Thought it would be easy, Bank Of America, I thought was probably big enough to honor that request.. My local branch could only come up with two, and even after I explained the reason for my request, they still treated it like I was laundering money somehow -- or needed it for some illegal purpose!

 

Since I waited until afternoon Thursday to do this, I left the branch feeling rather desperate, and called downtown to the regional office, and explained my situation... (naturally I just assumed they had stacks of new 100's somewhere, at least for the ATM's) No way. But nearly 2 hours into the process -- now it was 3:30 in the afternoon!! (sorry she's out to lunch, can you call back in an hour?) --- I finally found someone who was sympathetic to my situation, and she started calling around to brances on the east side of Portland, asking them how many new 100's they had and to set them asside. ---not all branches were even that receptive: "Whats up with that?" A mad dash, and 4 branches later, I had the 30 new 100's.... it was just before 6 pm. A little before 6 am the next morning, we caught a cab to go meet our daughter in Nanjing...

 

I don't carry US cash to China anymore. Only traveler's checks, and yes, they almost are never cashed on the street, so you need to be sure to get to a bank and cash them -- and it is worth comparing banks for the exchange rate. Banks often offer a higher exchange rate for traveler's checks than cash, but in both cases, charge a fee to process. Currency exchange (particularly in HK where it is very competitive) it the best source that I am aware of. Also, I try to bring both HK dollars and RMB home, to "prime the pump" for my next trip

[Alex]

They almost refused to cash my Travelers checks because I didn't have the proof of purchase with me. A Chinese friend of mine told me they now prefer the "new issue" 20's and 100's...they don't have to be right off the press, but they should be clean with no teller ink, or stray markings..... even then, the bank will scrutinize the bills!

[Guest blsqueaky]

I have found in my travels there, I had no problem with using the ATM with the BOC, as long as on the machine I saw the Cirrus symbol. After I left, left card with wife, and she used it when needed at the ATM right next to the White Swan. She also had no problem using a credit card to get cash.

 

Yes, many places for shopping do not take credit cards, along with many restruants, but luckily all of the ones that I went to did, except Lucy's on shamian island.

[skibum]

I have never had a problem cashing AmEx travelers checks at BOC. AmEx web site says they will cash them so I would call AmEx , give them the name of the branch of BOC and find out what is going on.

Always get your checks in Dollars and no other currency.

Let us know what AmEx says.

[yave20b]

I always take US $100 bills and as soon as I get to China have my fiancee deposit them into her bank account. Of course it is converted to RMB during the deposit. The bank tellers will check the bills rediculously carefully for a long time. If one doesn't look right to them, they will reject it. But you can always go to another branch and usually it will look OK to the next teller.

 

My fiancee just withdraws the RMB from her account as we need it during my trip. We've never had a problem with anything. I never pay for anything there with US dollars. Its too much of a hastle. Imagine some Chinese tourist in the US trying to pay for something with RMB.

 

Also, now I like to use PayDirect from Yahoo. I got my fiancee a PayDirect ATM card which can be used at any BOC branch ATM machine. The beauty of this is that PayDirect is operated by Hang Seng Bank (HSBC) from HK. And I have tied my BA account into the my HSBC account. I can go to any net bar in China, get onto my PayDirect account, transfer money from my BA account into the HSBC account in 5 minutes, and we can then go to the ATM machine in BOC and withdraw the funds as RMB instantly. Its the easiest way to go in China now. I also use this method to send my fiancee money when I'm in the US to pay for things she needs. The fees for this service are relatively low when compared to wiring money.

 

Counterfitting is a big problem in China, mostly with RMB. The hotels and banks are more than happy to change your US dollars to RMB....but forget about trying to change your RMB back to US dollars....they refuse to take their own RMB back because they are afraid it is counterfit. I nearly got stranded once because of that.

[oregonknl]

Thanks, Al,

 

Good post !