Lost ICBC debit card... good luck cancelling it!

[Manuel]

Hi people, recently I lost—or at least cannot find—my ICBC debit card. I have it linked to Alipay and Wechat so I can continue to make payments but common sense tells me it's best to have it cancelled and replaced just to be safe , so I went to ICBC yesterday and the guy behind the glass handed me a card cancellation request form entitled 个人客户挂失业务申请书, and another smaller one entitled 中国工商银行无锡分行储搐挂失证书核对单。 I have no idea what the latter form is even needed for but basically one of the fields on it requires my employer's chop (公章). Now, as far as I know the bank have no records of who I work or have worked for, so I don't see how this information is of any use to them. The fact is I don't have an employer at the moment as I'm between jobs (on a spousal visa currently), and I opened my bank account when I was on a student visa. It triggers my bullshitmeter that I can't cancel my own card by just showing up with my passport. The guy told me I could also use the chop form a close friend's employer, so I said to him: "You are now officially my close friend, can I conveniently use your employer's chop?" to which he replied in a quite voice: "No, no, no, there are cameras here". At that point my bullshitmeter exploded.  I'm just thinking I might go to a different branch and try again. It could be that the guy is merely doing as he's been told to, but it doesn't make any sense.

 

I wonder if anyone here has had a similar experience or any experience cancelling a bank card recently. I appreciate any advice, thanks folks!

[Baby Charlie]

I would just drain all the funds out of on using alipay and we chat as soon as possible and then just let it go. If you need a new card,  just go to a new bank and open an account. I have found Bank of China to be the easiest to use and it is the only bank my American bank will take a money transfer from.  Go figure but I don't understand banking laws here, either! 

[Manuel]

1 hour ago, Baby Charlie said:

I would just drain all the funds out of on using alipay and we chat as soon as possible and then just let it go. If you need a new card,  just go to a new bank and open an account. I have found Bank of China to be the easiest to use and it is the only bank my American bank will take a money transfer from.  Go figure but I don't understand banking laws here, either! 

 

That's probably the best thing to do. I actually have a Bank of China account as well, for the exact same reason—wiring funds from home. The only reason I had an ICBC account was because when I was a student there were only ICBC cash points on the campus, so I assume the university had some sort of exclusivity agreement with ICBC.

 

Just now I happened to walk by a Bank of China branch so I popped in to ask which bits I would need to provide to cancel a lost/stolen card. They told me I would only need my passport. I showed them the small form ICBC gave me and they said they didn't have a bloody clue why that would be needed at all, since a private bank account is in no way connected to who you work for.

 

Long story short, tomorrow I will be transferring all my funds from ICBC into BOC, close my ICBC account and be done with them and their BS. I will also let them know I will be telling everyone I know to stay away from ICBC because they support thieves by making it extremely difficult for loyal customers of +9 years to cancel their stolen cards.

 

ICBC also have one of the worst online banking systems I've ever had to deal with. For starters, it requires Internet Explorer to function, because it's 2018. The private banking version of it is tolerable, but the corporate version is a user experience horror doesn't work half the time.

 

To their credit, my local branch staff have always been very nice to me and, on a personal level, I have nothing against them. My gripes are with the bank's handling of simple matters.

[Lu]

It can sometimes help to just sit there and go 那怎么办呢？until they find a banfa. There is always a banfa. Stay polite and nice (the guy behind the counter can't help it), bring all the paperwork you can get your hands on, only be difficult by not leaving the counter until the problem is resolved. (Also bring something to read because this may take a while.)

 

Recently I went to the BOC for some 手续. Waiting time was about 3-4 hours. The 手续 took an hour and half. And there wasn't anything complicated or initially impossible, that is just how long things can take there.

[Manuel]

27 minutes ago, Lu said:

It can sometimes help to just sit there and go 那怎么办呢？until they find a banfa.

 

That made my day ? How could I forget this method? Always a good thing to carry an extra tool in my box.

[imron]

4 hours ago, Manuel said:

close my ICBC account

Sorry sir, we can't close your account until you fill in this form, and stamp it with your employer's chop.

[Manuel]

1 minute ago, imron said:

Sorry sir, we can't close your account until you fill in this form, and stamp it with your employer's chop.

 

You kinda went one step too far there because I don't mind a dormant account. It can linger as loooong as they want ? Should have been: "Sorry sir, we can't transfer funds out of your account until..." in which case I'll just leave the premises and tactically return at a more convenient time, say, 16:30—near closing time—,  and do the 那怎么办呢？number.

[anonymoose]

13 hours ago, Manuel said:

To their credit, my local branch staff have always been very nice to me and, on a personal level, I have nothing against them. My gripes are with the bank's handling of simple matters.

 

So several staff of your local branch have been nice, but that doesn't reflect on the bank. Yet one person asked you to complete a form, the reason for which you did not understand, and by your own account, another staff member could not figure out either, yet this reflects "the bank's" handling of simple matters? Sounds like a personal misunderstanding rather than bank policy.

[Manuel]

On 8/22/2018 at 8:19 AM, anonymoose said:

So several staff of your local branch have been nice, but that doesn't reflect on the bank. Yet one person asked you to complete a form, the reason for which you did not understand, and by your own account, another staff member could not figure out either, yet this reflects "the bank's" handling of simple matters? Sounds like a personal misunderstanding rather than bank policy.

 

The staff were doing as they had been told to do, and they were polite. They said different banks have different rules or policies. Because I was leaving the country soon (typing this from outside China now), I decided to just try to get my old employer's chop which I did and got my card replacement. I've moved my entire ICBC account balanced over to BOC where the chop is not required and the online banking system works on modern browsers such as Chrome.

[imron]

1 hour ago, Manuel said:

I decided to just try to get my old employer's chop which I did

So the bank teller's advice was useful then!

[Manuel]

5 hours ago, imron said:

So the bank teller's advice was useful then!

 

Yes, he was just merely doing his job. They told me there was no way I could do anything without getting a new card, even withdrawing money with my passport would not be possible. The way this works in China is a bit different from what I'm used to back home, where there is usually a bank account number and then a debit card associated with it. The debit card usually expires within one or two years and the bank sends me a new one automatically with a different card number, while the bank account number remains unchanged. Thus, if I lose my card I can still access my funds and manage my account from any branch as long as I can prove my identity.

 

Requiring the employer's chop is an arbitrary extra layer of bureaucracy because some banks "need" and others don't. Assuming everyone is employed is not reasonable. Not everyone is in the rat race. What if you are a freelancer? Or an artist? Or temporarily unemployed? Or on a spouse visa? Or cycling across China? Surely many of you know Serpentza from Youtube, had he lost is ICBC card he'd have encountered the same problems I did. Technically, they could add any number of layers and hoops and require customers to provide birth certificates, proof of employment for the past 5 years stamped by previous employers, translated and notarised, and copies of all passports since I the bank account was opened. Just because they can.

 

Anyway, getting the replacement card was much simpler than I anticipated—they only took 4 face shots and scanned my passport 7 times, and the whole process took just 1 hour and 15 minutes.