US Dollars or the UK pound...??? Converting Currency in China

[Shadowdh]

Hi there all,

Well the rooms are booked (hopefully) and the tickets paid for... all that remains is dropping the kids off with the Sister in law in Aus and I am there... woo hoo... (well apart from a few exams DOH)... but I have a quick question... Which would be the best foreign currency to bring to China in terms of ease of conversion or best rate of exchange... US dollars or UK pounds...?? should I bother changing the pounds to travellers cheques dollars before I go or just take the travellers cheques in pounds...?? Thanks all

[liuzhou]

It makes little difference whether you bring US Dollars or UK pounds (cash or TC's) . Both are accepted widely. Check out the exchange rates a few days before - you may get lucky!

Generally speaking, it is better to carry travellers cheques rather than cash - for two reasons.

a) security (lose your pictures of Lizzy and you're stuffed!)

B) travellers cheques usually get a marginally better exchange rate

[Shadowdh]

Thanks for the info Liuzhou...

[imron]

Remember too, that if your bankcard is hooked up to any international network (and it probably is) you'll be able to use it in Bank of China, CITIC, and by now, probably a host of other banks.

[Lu]

It's usually a better idea to only exchange money once: if you change your pounds to USD, then bring the USD to China and change them to RMB, you pay for the exchange twice, so it's likely to be more expensive than bringing your pounds to China.

Traveller cheques also work, but they are a bit of a mafan to exchange (not all banks take them). Personally I prefer bringing my bank card and just take RMB from an ATM as soon as I arrive. Check with your bank to make sure your card works in China.

[ange9s]

@Liuzhou: Where do you change travelers' cheques in Liuzhou? And who accepts foreign currency? I've tried to change those or larger denomination bills there, only them have them passed from bank employee to bank employee, so everyone can stare at it like it's a meteorite from Krypton. Maybe I don't have any guanxi in LZ, but things are different in the big city (Nanning:roll: ).

[Shadowdh]

I forgot about the credit card angle... I may just go with that...

Thanks for all the replies and info...

[badr]

Don't count on credit cards too much... Beijing has a few ATMs that will accept international cards but that's not a guarantee in the other cities. Also, US$ will go a better as almost everyone is familiar with them. Some banks will not change your currency on the weekend unless it's USD.

[stephanhodges]

Car you use the card directly to transfer money from home location directly into a "new" account set up at bank of china?

[BFC_Peter]

If you do take notes, be aware that they may not accept all denominations. For UK, they usually only accept 10 and 20 pound notes (I guess 50 would be ok too but they are not really that common even in the UK).

The notes may also be rejected if they show any signs of damage i.e. particularly grubby, or strips of tape used for repair.

They would also reject the less common variations of the notes (Bank of Scotland, Clydesdale, First Northern etc etc) but some UK establishments are even reluctant to take these.

Keep an eye on the exchange rate between the Aus and UK dollars and change your money at the most favourable point (the pound is growing in value against the dollar in recent weeks so leaving it as long as possible is best, as long as the rate continues to improve of course).

[imron]

It doesn't need to be a credit card, an ordinary bankcard hooked up to the international network will do. Regarding different banks, in my experience all Bank of China and CITIC ATMs will allow international withdrawals almost where-ever you are in China (this is speaking from more than 3 years experience living and travelling around China). Some other banks in big cities also allow this, but in other places it can be hit and miss.

[liuzhou]

Liuzhou: Where do you change travelers' cheques in Liuzhou? And who accepts foreign currency?

Bank of China on Longcheng Lu, just north of KFC

or Bank of China under Soho Bar on Jiefang Nan Lu

But check out http://tinyurl.com/kjo7k

[Shadowdh]

Excellent thanks for all the help and info...

I will be taking my cash card and a credit card and some cash too but what do people think about those travelex prepaid travel cards...???

http://www.travelex.co.uk/personal/PPC_default.asp?content=ppc