About Paypal 贝宝 in China

[Loriquero]

Hi there

In some days from now, I´ll may receive some money from a chinese company. And I don´t have a paypal account just yet.

I have to send and important percentage of that money to my native country (I´m living in China), back in my country, I can´t withdraw paypal money using my bank accounts. Not for now.

What I would like to do is:

-be able to receive that money via-paypal,

-be able to withdraw some of that money using a chinese bank account, (RMB)

-and send the rest of the money to Colombia also using paypal system.

This is what I´ve learned for now:

-Since 2006, You can withdraw paypal money in your chinese bank account in RMB.

-Paypal.cn can´t send/receive money to/from international paypal.com accounts.

My main questions are:

-Can I open a chinese bank account with my student visa?

-Which corporations can be used to withdraw paypal money? any particular recommendation?

-Most important: Can I withdraw paypal money from a chinese bank using a paypal.com account? or is this only available for the paypal.cn accounts?

I think that´s all (sh) thanks in advance for helping me out

[Senzhi]

Can I open a chinese bank account with my student visa?

Anybody with a valid passport and visa can open a bank account at any bank in China.

[flameproof]

I presume you have a local Paypal in Colombia.

You can open a NEW PP account in CN, from there you can withdraw money to a local China bank. Sure you can also send money back to CO, but watch the fees. A curency conversion with Paypal costs about 2.6% if I remember correctly.

[roddy]

-Most important: Can I withdraw paypal money from a chinese bank using a paypal.com account?

I very much doubt it, unless perhaps you have an internationally-accepted credit or debit card linked to that account. To send money back to Columbia you're going to have to get hold of it in RMB, convert it to whatever you are sending (which is a whole new game) and then wire it back either through the banks or Western Union or something.

Also, why is a Chinese company sending you money via Paypal - get a bank account, give them the details and let them pay it into your bank account. No fees, no hassle moving money from Paypal.cn to your bank.

Note also that Paypal generally can be a pain in the neck when it comes to identity checks and fraud prevention. If you've got a significant chunk of money, identifiably going from China to Columbia through new Paypal accounts (assuming you even manage to do that) I wouldn't be surprised if it gets frozen at some point along the way while they demand you prove who you are.

The easy part is the local bank account, as Senzhi says. Take your passport to any bank and you should walk out with a bank card in ten to twenty minutes.

[Loriquero]

Yeah, I assume you guys are right, I don´t know why I thought that creating a chinese bank account would be a pain in the ass. But now I think is better looking for the rates in the common western union or whatever money transfer agency near me and forget about paypal

谢谢你们！

[imron]

If you have any Chinese friends, they can help you wire money out of the country through a bank (foreigners have a USD 500 daily limit apparently). This is what I usually do when I want to send money home.

[roddy]

A Chinese friend would be very useful, as there are less restrictions on what they can do with money. Have you figured out how you're going to change the money into foreign currency?

[imron]

The bank takes care of all of this when you are there with your Chinese friend. You take in RMB, say you want to convert it to currency Y and send it to country X, fill in the forms, get your friend to sign the form and show his/her ID card, and the bank takes care of the rest. No questions asked.

[flameproof]

If you have a China Paypal.com account you CAN withdraw money into your local CHINA bank account.

http://www.paypal.com > Worldwide > then switch to "China":

Send: Send funds without sharing your financial information.

Receive: Receive funds quickly from anyone with an email address in the 190 countries and regions that accept PayPal.

Withdraw: Withdraw funds from your PayPal account:

* To your local bank account.

* To your US bank account.

* Via a cheque.

Localised: PayPal is translated and fully adapted to your country or region.

https://www.paypal.com/cn/

Completely off topic and unrelated: Roddy, I get an error message when I try to post a certain URL. I can post the URL (even not vie PM) and attached it in a text file.

vbb_error.txt

Edited February 25, 2009 at 09:56 AM by flameproof