Using a China Construction Bank card at Bank of America

[yialanliu]

Preface: No idea where to put this topic in which forum.

So I have a China Construction Bank card and was wondering if withdrawals from a Bank of America ATM is fee free in the US?

I know BofA ATM card used in a China construction bank is fee free, but not sure if it works the other way around.

The one caveat is I pay an ATM surchage outside of my city (Ningbo) so was wondering if anyone know about using a Chinese ATM card in the US.

[aroberts42]

I was just back home in October and I tried my Construction Card at a BoA and it wouldn't work. It accepted the card and pin and would tell me my balance, but when I tried to withdraw the action was rejected. I didn't try going to the counter, though.

[imron]

The bank's network would need to be connected to UnionPay. I've seen a few ATMs outside of China that claim this, but now that I'm no longer based in China, I don't want to risk having my card swallowed.

The other alternative would be if the Chinese bank card was connected to the Visa Cirrus/Electron network or similar (the back of your card will say if this is true or not, and for my ICBC bank card at least, this isn't the case).

[yialanliu]

Thanks for the update.

Yea, a swallowed card would suck, I only goto ATMs where you pull it out (not the ones that eat it and return it after the transaction).

Now if the BofA is connected to Unionpay, then would it work without the fee? I have used Chinese cards (Bank of China) and paid the fee at like Outlets with unionpay ATMs, but wondering about my construction bank card.