Transferring money into a Chinese bank account from abroad

[anonymoose]

Does anyone have any good ways of transferring money into a Chinese bank account from abroad?

 

I purchase stuff from various sources in China and pay using Alipay. I usually fill up my Chinese bank account when I go to China, but since I haven't been for a fair while (thanks to Covid), I am running low on Chinese funds. Is there a way I can change British pounds into RMB and deposit it into my Chinese bank account (or Alipay or Wechat) without actually being in China? Also bearing in mind that I don't use Chinese online banking and don't have a valid Chinese phone number.

 

And in case anyone asks, I cannot pay directly with my British bank cards. The cash must be in RMB in my Chinese account.

[mungouk]

It's not great but this is the most convenient way I have at present, without being able to be on the ground.

 

https://theswapsy.com/

 

I'm using it to send money from China to the UK every few days, by paying with Alipay or WeChat pay, and receiving into my PayPal account.  You would do the reverse.

 

You will need a PayPal account (or if you have a bank in the US, a Zelle wallet).

 

 

[889]

But does it indeed work the other way? As I recall, Transferwise can only transfer funds to China into an account owned by a Chinese ID card holder. I'd be surprised if a more liberal rule applies to other companies.

 

EDIT: Just looking at the Swapsy site I don't see any restriction like that.

[Flickserve]

If you had a chinese friend in UK, could you ask them to transfer to your Alipay RMB and you give theM GBP? 

[mungouk]

4 hours ago, Flickserve said:

If you had a chinese friend in UK, could you ask them to transfer to your Alipay RMB and you give theM GBP? 

 

Yes, or indeed anyone somewhere outside of China who has an AliPay or WeChat account linked to a Chinese bank card.

 

Also, if you set up a TransferWise account you could use GBP to pay them in EUR,  USD, AUD or NZD with very low transfer fees.
 

8 hours ago, 889 said:

But does it [Swapsy] indeed work the other way?

 

Yes it does.

 

As mentioned in another thread somewhere, it avoids doing cross-border transfer by matching 2 pairs of users in a similar way to what @Flickserve was suggesting, so that you make a transfer in-country in the currency you want to send, and another match is found for someone who wants to do the same in the currency you want to receive.  

 

I have a number of gripes about Swapsy but I continue to use it regularly because I have no alternative. 

[anonymoose]

6 hours ago, Flickserve said:

If you had a chinese friend in UK, could you ask them to transfer to your Alipay RMB and you give theM GBP? 

 

I did. Unfortunately that person has returned to China and doesn't want to swap at the moment.

 

11 hours ago, mungouk said:

https://theswapsy.com/

 

Thanks. I'll definitely consider that as there doesn't seem to be much alternative at the moment.

[Weyland]

Why not just go to a local branch and ask them to help you with it? Whenever I need money on my Chinese bank account when my transfers kept on bouncing I just visited the Bank of China branch in Rotterdam. With the massive amount of Chinese foreign students in the UK it can't be too difficult to find a walk-in location nearby. And if that isn't an option for your bank; why not just switch to another bank that does give you that possibility?

[mungouk]

 

2 hours ago, Weyland said:

Why not just go to a local branch

 

Chinese banks are pretty few in the UK, and mostly located in the biggest cities.

 

For example, ICBC only has 2 branches and they're both in London.  The nearest after that is... Amsterdam. 

[889]

Bank transfers tend to be expensive, there are sometimes surprise fees, and they are slow. Worst of all, you have to deal personally with a bank on each end. If that's the Bank of China, may God help you.

[Jim]

I regularly transfer money in GBP from my UK account to my Chinese one and then change it here, which is subject to fees and the loss in the exchange but the fees are actually pretty low (GBP15 IIRC) so it's mostly the exchange rate gets me. Takes three days for the standard service at that price, there is a pricier express option I've never bothered with. Have been paid via a similar currency swap type service before too and that worked well but never proactively used one.

[xinoxanu]

You could also "technically" create a Chinese PayPal account linked to Alipay/Chinese bank and move the funds from your western PayPal account into there.

 

Saying "technically" because despite doing my best a while ago to use this system, no funds were getting into my Chinese PayPal and they were being flagged as "suspicious" on the European side of things. Did all the ID verifying I could but nothing worked, so in the end I just dropped the idea.

 

Good luck if you go that route! ?