Receiving money from China

Ballard

Out of interest, is it possible to open a CNH account if you are in mainland China. If so, is it possible to fund it from China and then convert that to another currency? I’m guessing not.

I had one holiday in China and it took about an hour to convert Sterling to Yuan the first time. The next time I went into a bank to exchange a Chinese woman (who spoke no English) gestured that she would do the exchange for me and withdraw the cash from an atm to ensure that it was genuine. This was in full view of the bank staff who were probably delighted that they had no paperwork to fill in. Within a few minutes we’d done the exchange and I left her waiting for her next customer.

I withdrew from atms after that. 

toby3000

jonesMUFCforever said:

Your UK bank probably would have charged you to for accepting the deposit too.

You're right, my UK bank charged £12 to receive the money, but that I think that still makes it the cheapest and easiest way of sending money.

toby3000

Ballard said:

Out of interest, is it possible to open a CNH account if you are in mainland China. If so, is it possible to fund it from China and then convert that to another currency? I’m guessing not.

I'm not sure I follow - my bank account will let me hold some money in it in US dollars, but you can only buy $500 a month without the relevant tax certificates, and you can only carry $5000 out of the country (if you were so inclined). As far as I know, the only bank that will sell currencies other than USD is the Bank of China, which isn't my bank.

Ballard

CNH (as opposed to CNY) is Yuan held overseas (generally HK). It’s 1:1 with CNY but convertible to other currencies. The first question is whether you would be eligible to open an account and transfer CNY in. I’d guess not. 

toby3000

Ballard said:

CNH (as opposed to CNY) is Yuan held overseas (generally HK). It’s 1:1 with CNY but convertible to other currencies. The first question is whether you would be eligible to open an account and transfer CNY in. I’d guess not. 

I see - I'd imagine that you couldn't do that without Chinese citizenship, but to do honest I have no idea.

Ballard

toby3000 said:

Ballard said:

CNH (as opposed to CNY) is Yuan held overseas (generally HK). It’s 1:1 with CNY but convertible to other currencies. The first question is whether you would be eligible to open an account and transfer CNY in. I’d guess not. 

I see - I'd imagine that you couldn't do that without Chinese citizenship, but to do honest I have no idea.

I should have googled before posting because now that I have it seems that this is for corporates only. 

ceewash

toby3000 said:

I know I'm bumping a very old post, but I am someone who found myself in the same situation as your son, and it was hard to find good information - and I looked at MSE. So I thought I'd give my own experiences of sending money from China to the UK.

1. Paypal - I have 2 paypal accounts (a Chinese one and a UK one), and this was a *very* expensive method of sending money. This is mostly in the exchange rates - Paypal change it to US Dollars and then to GBP, and they decide on the exchange rate they're using. They took 675 RMB, which should be about £77 - they paid me £69, so over 10% all in.
2. In bank - I finally got round to doing this today. You need to have your paperwork in order - they need your passport, Labour contract, tax certificate (you can get this from the tax office) and an income certificate from your employer which says what your average monthly salary is. Contrary to other reports I've seen online, there is no upper limit on how much you can send as long as you have legally earned it and paid tax on it. The fees (and exchange rate) are what sets this apart - I sent 200,000 RMB. The exchange rate was good, and the fees were 300 RMB in total (200 commission, 100 flat fee). I believe the process is that they send the money to Beijing to have the money exchanged, and then it will be send on to the UK. It will take a few days to hit my UK bank - my colleague did it recently, and they got the money in 3 days with no fees from the UK bank. It took me about an hour and a half in the bank - the best advice being to go to the main branch in the centre of town, because they will have done remittances before and so will know what they're doing. I don't speak any Chinese and managed fine, with the usual help from translation Apps.

Hope this is helpful to anyone in the future!

I am the OP who started this thread. My son has found a way through his bank with acceptable charges. I will ask him how he's done it. he does tend to send a big sum at once (eg £2000). Will get back to you.

ceewash

Ok my son did use Alipay in the end. He liked it because the charges were clear, you were told before making transaction. he thought foreigners could only send upto 500USD a day, he asked a Chinese friend to do it if he was sending more and repaid them. He said you can send it through the bank but paperwork is needed for bigger amounts, proof of earnings. Hope that helps someone. Can't be certain how accurate the information is.

lyic

I'm a international student come from China, I think my experience may helpful. Accurately, send money to oversea from China has two steps, first is exchange Chinese Yuan (CNY) to foreign currency (like sterling), second is transfer money to oversea.
China has foreign exchange control, CNY can't directly send to oversea (except for Hong Kong and Macau permanent resident). Chinese citizen and permanent resident has a 50,000 USD/year convenience exchange quota, which means not require submit a document to prove the purpose of you exchange and the source of you money. Unfortunately non-permanent resident foreigners doesn't has the quota.

I think open a account with same bank in UK and China is best way to saving fees. There are four banks operating personal banking service both in China and the UK:
HSBC (only Primer account)
Bank of China
ICBC (only has a branch in London)
Citibank

Send money from China branches of these banks to their global branches are usually free.
For other situation, China banks usually charge 0.1% + 100~150 CNY for remittance (Not include correspondent bank change). 

lyic

toby3000 said:

Ballard said:

Out of interest, is it possible to open a CNH account if you are in mainland China. If so, is it possible to fund it from China and then convert that to another currency? I’m guessing not.

I'm not sure I follow - my bank account will let me hold some money in it in US dollars, but you can only buy $500 a month without the relevant tax certificates, and you can only carry $5000 out of the country (if you were so inclined). As far as I know, the only bank that will sell currencies other than USD is the Bank of China, which isn't my bank.

It won't be like this...
Many nationwide banks in China sold dozens of currencies, it maybe depend on which city you live. If you live in a big city (like Shanghai or Shenzhen), the bank's staff may more trained about foreign exchange business. You can try to use you mobile banking app to find '结售汇' (means exchange CNY to/from foreign currencies), but you may must do the transaction in counter.
If you want to get cash, you usually need to make an appointment from your bank.