Best Current account for living in China

Legacy_user

My daughter is going to China at the end of August to study for one year as part of her language degree. Can anyone tell me which current account would be best for her to have. She currently has a Halifax Student Account and a Nationwide flexaccount but others have told her to open either an HSBC or Bank of China account as it is easier to transfer money to them for her to access. Is this the best way for her to go or are her existing accounts ok?

johnmoney05

Nationwide is enough...I travel to China serval times a year. Only bring the nationwide credit and debit cards. Use the Nationwide debit card for the ATM, no problem at all. But watch out, don't withdraw too much at one time, say CN300 each time. In case the machine produce Counterfeit note. (it never happen to me though). Where is your daughter going in China? By the way.

Forget to mention, your daughter can apply one more current account with nationwide, so she will have two debit cards. Keep it separately. Because you only can withdraw £300 per day for one card, two debit cards in hand will be handy.

System

She's going to be studying in Beijing and getting a little nervous at the thought of it despite the fact her best friend will be with her.

Thanks for the info re the Nationwide. We were well aware that the Nationwide were one of the best for using in foreign countries but for some reason the university have promoted the HSBC and Bank of China and we wondered if there was something about their accounts which made them better than the Nationwide in China.

I've told her to go into our local Nationwide branch next week to clarify the situation. I don't see the point in opening an account with another bank which doesn't have many branches in Northern Ireland.

johnmoney05

Have been to Beijing a few times, and used Nationwide debit card without any problem.

Been in Macau in April this year, some banks did reject my debit card(they showed a message that I should contact my bank). But I tried some other banks, they did take it. They are one next to the other. So if your daughter tries one has problem, does try the other ones.

Find the HSBC branch in Beijing, their ATM will accept Nationwide debit card. As to chinese bank, find the "China Construction Bank" and "Agricultural Bank of China". I remember their ATMs work with NW's debit card as well.