Give me my money!
Anyone who's lived in this country for any extended period of time knows the irritations of the dreaded Chinese banking system. Nearly every single aspect of the system is cause for frustration, from the bank tellers who feel the need to count your money by hand (the process seems to go: count money, run through machine, count again, run through machine), the insane amount of times you need to punch in your pin number every time you want to do something at the teller, the ridiculous amount of time spent sitting in those limp black chairs, waiting for your number to be called, and it goes on. Don't even get me started on how long it seems to take people to use ATM's - again, the process seems to go: put card in, punch in pin number, check balance, withdraw amount of cash, check balance again, withdraw another small amount of cash, check balance, continue ad nauseam. The most frustrating aspect of all though, is the horrific and outdated process of getting a new bank card when your original has been lost.
Losing your bank card is tantamount to disaster with the current policy that stands - as soon as it happens you need to head to the bank in which you opened your account and apply for a new card, a process which takes 7 working days. This practice is standard for most banks around the world, and waiting for your new bank card is a reasonable request. The issue lies in the fact that the process of getting a new card requires the bank to freeze your account, thereby leaving you unable to withdraw any funds, regardless of circumstance.
As someone who frequently loses wallets and is prime target for those clever, irritating pick pockets, I've waged wars on various banks and spent countless wasted hours arguing with the usually hapless bank tellers, arguing, pleading and begging with them to let me take out a small amount of cash. "But how will I eat?! All my money is in this bank account! It's clearly my account, it's obviously my money, just give it to me already!!" Arming myself with my passport and every other conceivable piece of identification I could possibly have does not secure me with the right to access my money in my bank account. "Mei ban-fa", four bank tellers and three different bank manager insist. "You must apply for a new card and pick it up before you can withdraw any money. There is no other way."
By the by - if you do happen to be so unlucky as to lose your bank card, lord help you if you opened your account in a different city. I've had friends who've had to fly across country simply to withdraw money. Even if you have two accounts within the same bank, an online transfer is impossible without your bank card - with the insane logic that is China banking, you must sign up for online banking in person and with your bank card at the ready. Closing your account also requires the physical card, and the only saving grace to this is if you happen to have a passbook, I'm pretty sure Bank of China will allow you to withdraw with only this, but I don't know any other banks who will allow you to do so.
Mei ban-fa!! -- Jenn Wong
Comments Add a public comment
-
-
-
-
Foreign Exchange Certificates I guess. It was one real big mafan!
-
-
Banking in China has come a long way, but it still makes me want to poke my own eyeballs out. A few months ago I went to five different banks trying to exchange RMB for pounds, it was a disaster and I eventually had to go to the Friendship store where they changed my RMB to US dollars which I changed to pounds in London. Nightmare! I think changing US dollars is relatively easy these days, but Canadian dollars are also hard to find at a decent price, even harder to find a bank that even carries them!
Foreign Exchange Certificates! Can someone explain these to me?
-
-
I've spent the last two weekends at the Post Office bank, the stupidest bank ever. Despite the fact I already have TWO Chinese bank accounts, the company decided they wanted to do direct deposit for my salary to the Post Office (insert a WTF here). I know this is China and things are of course going to be different but shouldn't I get a say in where my own money is going? Answer: No.
So I finally got over to a Post Office on a Saturday and attempted to activate my card. Despite having all my identification with me because I did not have the pin code the company had set but did not tell me, I couldn't withdraw any money. I seethed my way home.
The next Saturday when I returned with my Pin Code, I found that they had frozen my account due to "suspicious activity" and that they would need to see some ID to unfreeze the account. Despite having TWO correct PIN codes and the fact, I had seen the EXACT SAME TELLER the weekend before, I had to seethe my way home AGAIN to get my passport.
The entire process over the two weeks probably took 5 hours of my time. The lesson in all of this: never go to a bank without EVERYTHING: card, bank deposit book, passport and an ipod or a book because you'll probably be there for hours.
-
-
Dan! The same thing happened to me when I first started at my old job. They gave me ONLY my bank card, no pin number, passbook or anything (for some reason, we were never issued passbooks). When it came time for me to use my card, I called HR and they told me that the pin was the last few digits of my passport. So I try it a couple times and of course it doesn't work, and my account gets frozen. It turns out that I had to GO TO THE BANK FIRST, give them the pin number set by the company, CHANGE the pin code to something I wanted, and then wait a week. What?! Why!!
On top of bringing passport, deposit book, bank card, ID papers, Ipod and book, everyone should also probably bring a couple of tabs of Adavan and a leather bit to chew on.
-
-
To add to Jenn's comments: also bring a LOT of patience. You will need it to deal with the whole system.
I long for the good ol' days of Credit Suisse in 1999, when they were pleased to even take my CHF 5 deposit!...
© 2007 Beijing Ringier International Advertising Company. All rights reserved.
京ICP备05061149号
Totally right on. Banks are a disaster here. I can't even imagine the mafan of 15 years ago when foreigners weren't even allowed to pay in RMB and had to buy these things called Foreign Exchange Currency.