Transferring Money to China

[LBeachey 44]

Has anyone had success in transferring money to China?  We have used Xoom in the past (Pre-Covid) and just tried two transactions that were both cancelled. Looking to transfer around $1000. Any suggestions?

[T Town Hombre 7]

At first I had a lot of canceled transactions through wire services.  What I am about to tell you is to be used with caution and financial protections set up in advance. More on that later.  What I did, with the approval of my bank, was to open another bank account and mail the debit card to China.  Right now I am hearing no's from many on this site but it was the most successful method I found. You really need to build trust with this.  

 

Make sure the money you send is in a manageable form i.e. transactions that are in increments usable on the Banks ATM's in China.  If memory serves 2500rmb is the increment. 

 

To use the debit card method isn't without problems.  You will get fraud alerts often and you will have to call your bank and give approval to disbursements in China.  Secondly place withdraw limits to protect yourself.  You never know when it comes to money and how easy it is to abuse something like a debit card and possible perceived unlimited funds that could be available to the person on the other end.

 

Fees are less this way too.  There is an ATM out of network transaction fee and then a 1% fee on the balance sent from the bank in China.

I would send 2000rmb at a time and my cost was a little over $5.00 per transaction.

[LBeachey 44]

8 minutes ago, T Town Hombre said:

At first I had a lot of canceled transactions through wire services.  What I am about to tell you is to be used with caution and financial protections set up in advance. More on that later.  What I did, with the approval of my bank, was to open another bank account and mail the debit card to China.  Right now I am hearing no's from many on this site but it was the most successful method I found. You really need to build trust with this.  

 

 

Thanks, the money is going to a trusted source (family member). The problem is I only anticipate ate needing to send money sporadically so setting up a sperate bank account sounds like too much of a hassle.

 

A Google Search brings Up Wise and some others services besides Xoom and was wondering if anyone had recent experience.

[Verrou 1,899]

4 hours ago, LBeachey said:

Has anyone had success in transferring money to China?  We have used Xoom in the past (Pre-Covid) and just tried two transactions that were both cancelled. Looking to transfer around $1000. Any suggestions?

i use wise ( formerly known as transfer wise) and it goes through. i use it to purchase clothes around USD 350

Edited October 7, 2022 by Misscloud

[LBeachey 44]

We just did a transfer in Wise and since my wife is still a Chinese citizen we were able to transfer it to her WeChat account which then makes it simple for her to transfer to her family member.  Fee was less than 100 RMB and the rate was very competitive.  Very easy and would recommend.

[RandyW 149]

Wise has a "same currency" option (i.e., USD), which allows sending to China as an option. That may work out to be cheaper and easier than using my BofA account when sending smaller amounts (e.g., less than $10,000).

 

Converting to RMB is usually more favorable in China.

[Stein 260]

Over the last couple of years I have used TransferWise and later Wise to send over $100,000 to Vietnam and have never had an issue.  I know it's not China but it's a testament to Wise over many transactions.  The most disappointing thing is that they have a $10,000 limit per transaction so I've had to send five transactions the same day which resulted in five wire transfer fees for my bank.  Otherwise it's been great.