withdrawing cash from UK acc in Beijing? + where is Bank of China in Wu Dao Kou?

[chasingOblivion]

Hi all,

I'm studying at BLCU for a while and am having some trouble withdrawing cash at ATMs here. The cards I'm using are a Barclays debit card (Visa) and a Nationwide cash card (Cirrus). So far I've tried the ATM right next to the South gate at BLCU as well as the one next to the conference centre, the one outside the postoffice next door to BLCU (inbetween BLCU and the "chao shi fa xue" supermarket), and one about 5 minutes walk north on Xue Yuan Lu (the agricultural bank of China or something; name is in green).

Each time I try to withdraw cash I just get a "transaction failed" message. From some searching on the internet I heard it could be because Chinese ATMs use 6 digit pins, and in the UK we use 4 digit ones; the poster in that case (could even have been on these forums) just added two zeroes to the end of his 4 digit pin and it worked, but didn't work for me. Does anyone have any suggestions as to why this keeps failing?

I heard elsewhere that Bank of China ATMs should work with foreign accounts, so could someone tell me where the nearest Bank of China is to BLCU? I heard there was one at Wu Dao Kou, I've been through there a few times but I can't remember seeing one, just remember there's a CITIC or something at the next junction west after the Wu Do Kou station.

Many thanks all for your help! And hope you're having fun studying Chinese

[Yang Rui]

I have a Nationwide card and i have only ever used it successfully at Bank of China and Citibank ATMs. I have heard you can also use them at China Construction bank ATMs.

Occasionally my card doesn't work and the transaction will be rejected. This seems to happen irrespective of what type of ATM i use, what time of day it is etc. It just happens sometimes. But then the next day it will all be working fine again. Someone suggested this is because the ATMs have run out of notes, but i'm not so sure.

For this reason, whenever i'm in China i make sure i have a few hundred pounds of traveller's cheques just in case my card stops working and i'm desperate for cash. My parents had the same problem in Italy, so i don't think it's just a Chinese thing. Possibly dodgy lines of connection between banks or something - i don't know how it works.

My advice would be to ask a teacher / student / shopkeeper / anyone in the street where the nearest Bank of China is. Great chance to practice your Chinese and if you're lucky you'll make a new friend...

Good luck!

[Shadowdh]

I used the one by the south gate no probs with a barclay visa (credit), lloyds visa (debit) and one other card which I cant remember at the moment... all worked fine and I used my UK 4 digit pin... did you get the machine on the right hand side as the others arent cash dispensing, also try the one in the building with the library...

The Bank of China in wudaokou is behind another large building. If you go past the station and up to the next major intersection (with the outdoor store in the shopping complex on the right) its diagonally right across from there... I cant remember the name off hand of the shopping centre there on the corner but anyone around there will help...

[onebir]

I've used a Lloyds visa card at Industrial Bank and Agricultural Bank of China ATMs with no real problems - apart from the maximum withdrawal limit sometimes only being RMB1500, and the ATMS occasionally being out of service. Just pushing 'enter' after typing in the four digit pin seemed to work. Both Industrial Bank and Agricultural Bank of China branches are quite widespread in Beijing...

[billiardsmike]

I've used the ATMs of several banks here with no problem, even with a 4 digit PIN. I'm not sure the China Post ATM's are on a network, so forget those. That's the only one that hasn't worked for me. Nearest Bank of China is just north of the one you tried north of the east gate. Go north to the next light and it's diagonally across, next to Starbuck's.

[chasingOblivion]

Thanks guys. I was out in Jian Guo Men Wai (I think) and used an ATM at a shiny "Bank of Beijing" there. Worked fine with my Nationwide as long as when asked what account I wanted to use, I selected "default account". The "default account" was apparently a "savings account", but withdrawals didn't work when selecting "savings account" directly from the list. A bit bizarre; as far as I know we don't have this savings / checking account choices on the same card, so maybe trying to select either results in the UK bank throwing up an error? Could also be that I hit some kinda limit but I only withdrew £60 from my account so I doubt that's it.

Thanks for all the info about banks. Seems like there is definitely some randomness involved with the process, but it's good to know that it's not just me who's having problems! And will try the suggested banks next time.

Cheers!

[adrianlondon]

Nationwide Flexaccount is a Cheque Account not a Savings Account.

4-digit PINs work fine, but the networks go down often here and the cards get rejected.

Just be grateful you're not charged for using the machine. My partner used to work as customer support for a bank in Taiwan, and lots of customers would complain about being charged about £2 (equiv.) each time they used a machine when on holiday here in China, especially as it often took 5 or 6 times before the machine would actually give them any money!

No refunds were given ;)

[Madot]

There's another Bank of China in the road at the end of the driveway going to Xijiao Hotel. I don't know which part of this area you live in, but it's not far from the western gate of the uni which leads to the short-cut by the Xijiao Hotel. If you need more detailed instructions, contact me personally.

Mado

[ocpaul20]

The other thing you could all do is to open a chinese bank account, but I suppose 3 months is not really long enough to bother to open an account unless you think you might be returning sometime in the future.

[prolyfik]

Another interesting tidbit regarding banks and ATMs...

I've got an HSBC account in the USA and it is cheaper for me to withdraw from Bank of China ATMs because they don't seem to charge a transaction fee (or at least not as high as the HSBC China ATMs do).

So, I think Bank of China has not charged for ATM withdrawals using my Citibank account as well. Though, theoretically, the few Citibank ATMs around town are supposed to be free of transaction fees for Citibank cardholders.