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Hello~
I’m planning to live for 8-9 months in Chengdu next year and I was wondering if someone could give me advice on how to deal with money in China. I’m from the Netherlands so I have a bank account here, and what would you advice is the smartest thing to do regarding handling your money when you live in China for only 8-9 months? I know that cash is handy in some situations but now with Didi and the mobile payments I don’t really know what’s best to do.
Your advice is highly appreciated! ^-^
Hi,
It depends on exactly what you’re needs are. If you’re earning money in China, then use that, and bring the excess cash home with you (or send it via bank transfer). If you mean you’ll need to convert euros to Chinese RMB, that is easy to do at almost any bank. You might also be able to use your bank card here in China to withdraw funds from your Dutch bank account. In general, getting money into China is easy, getting it out is not always so simple.
Cash is still pretty much king. I’ve had success setting up my American visa card on most Chinese payment systems as well though.
For simplicity’s sake, it’s easiest to keep your Dutch bank account and just withdraw cash from big bank’s ATMs (Bank of China, China Construction Bank, ICBC, etc.).
My bank pays back all ATM fees, so there are no problems there, for me.
I’d open a Chinese bank account as soon as I arrived, and get a Unionpay card. I don’t know about Dutch banks, but Norwegian banks seem to charge both a rather high fee for withdrawing cash in an ATM, and give a shit exchange rate on top of it. A transfer from your European account to your Chinese account usually takes about 4 days, then, depending on your bank, it’s anything from 15 minutes to an hour of paperwork to convert the fund into RMB. Merchants’ Bank seem to be the easiest, Bank of China has an absurd paper mill of forms and copies and signatures and stamps.
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