Cashing Foreign Checks in China

[doumeizhen]

Hi Everyone,

I just completed some work for a foreign company and they sent a foreign check (US) directly to me in Beijing. Is there any way that you know of that I can cash this check in Beijing, or do I need to send it home to my Mom to take care of?

Thanks for any advice!

[cutty]

You can open an account at Bank of China (not sure if other banks can deal with foreign currency now, China changes too fast. You may ask) and deposit it to your account. However it may take months before you can withdraw from it.

[roddy]

As I understand it (ie, vaguely, with a bunch of half-remembered impressions from conversations had and websites read over the years)

You will be able to pay it into a bank account. However, it will take ages (quite possibly months) to clear, and there'll be a hefty fee to pay. You should be able to do it at any branch, but taking it to a branch that does a lot of international business will mean they're more familiar with the process.

I'd send it home, get someone to pay it in there and then withdraw the money on your bank card. Less fees and quicker.

[roddy]

See this - it's the process as described for people cashing Google Adsense cheques (which probably accounts for a large chunk of foreign cheques cashed in China.

Doesn't actually seem as bad as I thought it was, but you're still looking at a wait of about a month.

[banjo67xxx]

I don't know about cashing cheques but international wire transfers are dead easy

We've got a pound sterling bank account with China Merchants Bank, and I understand all the banks do pound and dollar accounts. Prior to Dec 2006, you could convert $10,000/day from a foreign currency to RMB, and $50,000/day if you had paperwork showing that the money came from a foreign relative. This year its a simpler $50,000/year without any paperwork required.

So when we bought our house last year I just did a wire transfer for £xxx,000 into our CMB account, then 3 days later (2 of which we were in the air from London to Beijing) my wife walked into CMB with the copy of the wire transfer form with my name on it, and our marriage certificate, then we were able to change all the money in just n days (instead of n times 5).

The other advantage of doing things this way is that most of the UK banks can't do wire transfers in RMB, and the ones that do give really crap exchange rates. E.g. HSBC London quoted 13.82RMB/£ on the same day HSBC Shanghai were quoting 14.87RMB/£. Just because HSBC stands for Hong kong Shanghai Banking Corporation doesn't mean to say you can send money to China cheaply through them

[imron]

Out of curiousity, what are the fees like (percentage-wise) when wiring such large amounts?

[banjo67xxx]

Lloyds TSB charges £30 for the wire transfer fee

Barclays International charges £29.?? for acting as an intermediary

China Merchants Bank makes no charge at all.

Lloyds TSB gives us a good deal on other stuff so I've not asked Barclays UK if they'd be any cheaper if we used them. And anyway the interest on £xxx,000 whilst transferring is more than the £30 we could save.

[doumeizhen]

Thanks everyone! All this is very useful.... I might just go brave it. It's probably safer and quicker than sending it home where there are mail-eating pups.