Old Chinese bank accounts

[Xiao Kui]

I have cards and passbooks from several old bank accounts at Bank of China, China Construction, and Industrial Commerce banks. when I left China years ago I never closed out these accounts but left probably less than 50 kuai in each one. Every time I went to China I just opened new accounts since the old ones didn't have much in them and i hadn't touched them for years.

 

when I return to China should i attempt to use any of these old accounts or just open a new one? I am always afraid to mess with them for fear of learning I owe some kinds of inactivity fees. Do Chinese banks automatically close old accounts if they are inactive for a certain amount of time?  My inclination is to just open new accounts, but I was curious as to what probably happened to my old ones.... Thanks!

[vellocet]

They're likely still there but you'll need your old passport and perhaps access to your old phone number to get into them. 

[Lu]

I think there's a good chance you can succeed in closing them. Bring your passport from when you opened the account and any and all paperwork you still have that is associated with the account; if possible, go to the bank office where you originally opened it; and be aware that it might well take hours, both in waiting time and in processing the paperwork time. Or if you still have the associated bank cards, try taking all the money left out of it from an ATM and just leave the account.

 

In this matter I only have experience with Taiwanese bank accounts though. I closed one account when I came back a few years after leaving. The only real difficulty was that they insisted on a Taiwanese correspondence address, which I didn't have anymore (because I was only there on holiday). Apart from that it went fine, all the money was transfered to my Dutch account. No fines for not touching it long enough, no automatic closing (that I'm aware of, and really they shouldn't, this is your money not theirs), interest had been added all the time. But as I said that was Taiwan, might be slightly different in China.

[Xiao Kui]

Ok, thanks for the advice.  It's not a possibility in my case to go to the branches where I opened them because I'll be in a new city, but I'll try to close them out anyway   I guess my fears about fees originated from years ago when i signed up for a cell phone plan, didn't close it properly, and found out a year later that I'd accumulated over 10,000 RMB in charges! I was able to get it cleared up because the girl who signed me up for the plan was a friend and she had never explained the terms of the contract to me (or she was trying to get 10,000 out of me since she's the one who informed me of the charges!

[889]

Large Chinese banks are regionally organised, and I think you would be wasting your time trying to close an account opened in Beijing, say, at a branch in Guangzhou.

 

Remember, though, that if you don't close these accounts and are, or ever become, subject to reporting your foreign bank accounts to the U.S. Federal government, then these small inactive accounts will turn into a nagging hassle.

[Xiao Kui]

Remember, though, that if you don't close these accounts and are, or ever become, subject to reporting your foreign bank accounts to the U.S. Federal government, then these small inactive accounts will turn into a nagging hassle.

 

 

that's a good point, never thought of that!

[Lu]

Large Chinese banks are regionally organised, and I think you would be wasting your time trying to close an account opened in Beijing, say, at a branch in Guangzhou.

I agree with this, you most likely need to be at least in the same province as where you opened the account, and likely also in the same city.

 

Moderator note: I split off the FATCA discussion to make a new thread, feel free to continue the discussion there, it's an interesting subject. We can continue to advise the OP on old bank accounts in this thread.

[shuoshuo]

I left China for a few years. When I returned, my ICBC card was still in use (although I created an online account for it before I left, and when I was back home I'd check once in a while to see if it was still active). I left about 50 kuai in there.

My Bank of China account however (which was my primary bank account) had more money in it. In the years that I was away, I had also renewed my passport. When I returned, my passbook and atm card was invalid. I went to the BOC counter, showed them both my old and new passport and told them that I'd like to update my account. They told me that my account no longer existed. I went to another branch for a second opinion and the person there sighed and said "that's going to be complicated and a hassle, can I just help you create a new bank account?". Needless to say, my primary bank account is now with ICBC. That said, your accounts are probably dormant but still active.

[Xiao Kui]

Thanks for sharing your experience - since returning to the province where I opened the accounts is not an option in the near future I'll just have to let them be for now. 

 

"that's going to be complicated and a hassle, can I just help you create a new bank account?"

 

Haha, this is was my philosophy when i decided to forget my old accounts and open new ones - i guess it was not unfounded

[shuoshuo]

I should also add that the new accounts don't use those passbooks anymore. I lost my ICBC atm card (old account with passbook) and the staff just created a new account for me, then transferred all the data and funds from the old account to the new one. She gave me a card, no passbook. The new cards come with a chip and they also have the proximity function. Anyway, welcome back to China, haha.