Transferring money between the US and China

[FromPAUS 4]

I was going to send 500 usd to China via BofA but their rate was horrible and the fee was I think 35 dollars.

I ended up going with Western Union which was only 12 dollars and the exchange rate was 6.07 opposed to BofA 5.7 so I saved a bunch there also.

The only hiccup was that all the western union pickup locations on the site were not correct.

My fiancee finally found western union at the main bank in her city after trying three other nearer locations that were listed but they didn't know anything about westen union.

One thing that I would like to comment is that you don't have to exchange the currency in here before you sent it out. Chinese bank allows multi currency and your fiancee can exchange them in China. She will receive a better exchange rate. In the other words, you can send your fiancee money in US dollar and she will receive US dollar in her bank account. Once she receives it, she can exchange US dollar into RMB with the rate over there. United States is the worst place in the world in terms of retail exchange rate.

[Darnell 8,478]

ya, i send monies via western union, often. I go to a grocery store nearby after working, shift 1000 or so , pay via my debit card and the fee is 11 bucks, she sees it after an hour at the western union office there.

once in a blue moon i do a wire transfer/TT for a largish amount and she has a USD account with her bank - she'll leave it in USD there till she wants to shift it.

She also has a paypal debit card on one of my business accounts in her name and uses it on a regular basis. Unsure of the conversion rate done at the atm's but the transaction fee was always 1 dollar usd.

Edited January 21, 2014 by Darnell

[Removed030114 48]

There are little known laws in China that allow each and every Chinese citizen to transfer up to $50,000.00 USD per year to a foreign bank. I think you said your partner uses the Bank of China, which is one of the larger banks in China. To complete the transfer process, she needs to go to the bank in person with all the US bank information in hand. This includes:

1. Exact name of the bank

2. Exact address, including city, state, and zipcode

3. Telephone number of the bank

4. Bank account number

5. Bank swift code. If it's a credit union then it will NOT have a swift code so you will need to provide them the routing number.

6. Exact name of the account holder

You will have the option to send the cash in RMB (Renminbi) or convert to USD. I've found doing the conversion to USD at the bank is the easiest method as they always give according to the current rate. In larger China cities the wait time can be significant, so it's best to arrive at the bank when the open the door in the morning. I've used this method several times and it takes about 24-48 hours for the money to appear in the US account. Fees are nominal, with a total charge of less than 35 USD.

I've also found the easiest method to transfer money to a China bank is to use the international transfer services available at the US bank or Credit Union. The transfer fee is typically around 35 USD.

Edited January 30, 2014 by CNTrav

[cloud171 1]

The way I have been doing it is using a Charles Schwab investor checking account that has 0 foreign transaction fees for international ATM withdrawals and give the fiancee the debit card.

You can call and have the withdrawal limit raised, by default it is $500 but I've had go up to $1k. So far the debit card has worked for most ATMs at any bank in China. Also the upside is, the exchange rate is probably as competitive as it gets.

[lasko12 9]

You can use HSBC account as you can access money from anywhere US or China.

[FromPAUS 4]

Thanks but that is what I'm doing now. I got a prepaid debit cart to do just that was sharing what I found with others and also looking to see if anyone found any better way. Still trying to figure out how to send money from China to the US easy too.

What I found out was that my fiancee have people send USD to my Paypal account from China. Paypal charges about $4 on every $100.