IKOBO cards

[Jeikun]

Jun tried to use her ikobo card (www.ikobo.com) to make a purchase last night and was refused.

 

For those who don't know, ikobo is a way to send money. The recipiend gets a visa check card, and any money you send is put into their account. The recipient can make withdrawels from an ATM, or use the card for purchases (ideally).

 

However, the numbers on the card aren't raised... it's a completely flat card. This caused the Chinese shop owner to suspect it was a fake card of some kind (what does he care, if it goes through he gets paid) and refused to let her use it.

 

She had no problems with it in the past, and it works fine in an ATM, but just a word of caution for those who may be considering it.

[warpedbored]

Bing and I tried IKOBO when she was still in China. I posted on it a long time ago but to recap it was a dud. the bank of China wouldn't let her take out more than 1000 yuan at a time and charged a 3 dollar fee every time she used it. One time when she used it and then tried to use it again right away it refused her but took the money of the account anyway. It took me about 2 months to get it straightened out then I just had them credit the balance to my bank account. IKOBO doesn't work well in Nanning anyway. I wouldn't recomend it.

[raineedaze]

I send money often through the IKOBO card and it works very good for us in Nanning. Maybe they fixed what was wrong. She takes all the money out at one time and she has never mentioned a problem at all. The first time I sent money to Ying was by cashiers check and I misspelled her middle name. They would not cash it and she had to send it back to me. That is when I found IKOBO and it has been wonderful. It is difficult to get set up originally but when she needs some money I can send it in a minute rather than days. She can go to her ATM right then and get her money.

[Jeikun]

We've had no problem with ATMs either. Just that shopkeeper not liking the flat card.

[warpedbored]

Perhaps they have fixed it but my overall experience with Bank cards in Nanning is unfavorable anyway. The only Bank that will take foreign ATM cards there is the Bank of China. One one occasion it would let me take out 1000 yuan and after that it wouldn't give me any money. I had to go inside and talk to a teller and do it inside. Of course they charged a fee as well. Maybe its just my bank(US Bank) as I have heard of other people using bank cards easily in China. My experience is its better to take cash.