Rant Part 3 by NS: Opening a bank account in China
Even with a residence permit in hand, these days finding a bank willing to take foreign clients is tough.
View from China with an Austrian School of Economics Perspective
Got my Shandong residence permit today (1 year, because I have to start over in Shandong after 15 years in Beijing and Shanghai). Went and got a local mobile number, that was easy. (Turns out you don't actually need a residence permit for a SIM card, just passport is enough)
And then I ventured off to open a bank account, going down the street and hitting banks as I ran into them. There are better and worse banks in China, depending on what you need the most (business, personal, online banking, etc.) but I did not care. I just need ANY bank account where I can deposit cash and I can link to Alipay so I can participate in China's economy, get a taxi and buy things for the house including food.
ICBC: Said can't open an account here, foreigners have to go to a special branch where foreigners are handled, 15-minute drive, no subway station.
Bank of China: "Are you just visiting or are you staying long term?" "I have a residence permit," I tell her proudly, as if I have a reference letter from Xi Jinping himself. "Let me ask the management".... 10 minutes later... "sorry, it would take a very long time to approve." What's a long time? "I don't know, a very long time" she says without removing eye contact, not looking embarrassed a bit. Ok I get it, you want me to leave.
Construction Bank of China: Sorry, can't open a bank account here, have to go to a special branch for fur'ners, obviously, silly.
China Postal Service Bank. :) Hey, as I said, I don't care. I just need a place to drop cash and link to Alipay. I saw them listed on Alipay. Well, they were considering me, more than others. Everyone keeps asking "what country?" Does it matter? Does China discriminate? Anyway, she said, what you need is something from your embassy. Oh. What would that be? A certificate of something something tax. Ok, I already knew Serbian embassy was not authorized to do that, but upon further inquiry what they need is something that says I am not a China taxpayer. But how can the Serbian embassy "declare" that (even if they were willing). China, and Chinese laws, decide that, regardless of what Serbia thinks about it. Dumb. Ok, looked promising but wasn't going anywhere, she had no idea what she was talking about.
So I got pretty depressed. Why is it so hard for someone with a residence permit, property owner, family member of two citizens to open a bank account to deposit $2,000 a month (not that any bank actually asks these questions: I understand banks deal with risk, so you would think they would want to Know Their Customers – who are you, how long have you been here, what do you do, what do you own, what do you need the bank account for, etc. Right? I would get that. But nobody is even asking those questions.
It didn't look like a bank account was going to happen in Shandong at all. The prospect of going to Shanghai – a two-hour flight – which I will do anyway at some point, and updating my passport with the ICBC account I have there looked more promising. Maybe the problem is with opening an account, once you have one, nobody really cares anymore?
Alternatively, maybe they won't be such idiots at Standard Chartered (I am a customer in Beijing, but again, that's as good as a different country) or HSBC (HSBC China is one of the worst banks in the world, I was a customer in Beijing many years ago, the one bank account I closed with passion), but they have like one branch and three ATMs in Qingdao each, probably hours away from me. That will not be fun if I have to do this once a month.
There was one more bank on the other side of the street on the way back home: Qingdao Bank. I had hoped to open an account in one of the national banks, not in some local bank. But beggars can't be choosers. So I walk in. Huge building, huge floor with barely a few customers. "Hi, what can we help you with?" "I want to open a bank account." "Ok, sure, no problem, over there." Really? I am half expecting her to say "No, not really, are you stupid, get out of here. "
There are three clerks, looks like they had like 2 customers the whole day (it's 4pm) Excited to see me, something to do! I tell them the story of what I need and what the troubles are. They seem very empathetic. Let's do this. Of course they have no clue what they are getting themselves into. They have never opened a bank account for a foreigner. That's a good and a bad thing. Good because had they done it before they would probably be like the people at the Bank of China.
BTW turns out this is not even the Qingdao Bank. It's Qingdao Rural Commercial Bank. Oh gawd. Hey are you sure I can add this to Alipay, because if I can't then what am I doing. That's the whole point. I don't actually NEED or WANT a bank account for anything else. The girl doing my account shows me her Alipay with the bank's card added: who do you think we are here, some country bumpkins? Ok, sorry, didn't mean disrespect.
The whole process takes about half an hour. A bunch of "sign here" (without reading) etc. like at every bank anywhere in the world. But once in a while there is some friction and the girl doing it needs help from her manager and even her manager's manager.
"Is the address in your passport in English?" she asks me. Tricky question. "No, it's in Serbian." "It's in Serbian, not English" she tells manager's manager on the phone. She doesn't know how to enter it. The prompt in the computer says "Address in English". My Serbian address in the passport is actually a name of some Serbian war hero, it's not even Serbian. It's just a name, it's the same in English, I tell her. Yes, but is it *in* English, she asks suddenly vary serious. One of her eyebrows raised up a bit too.
English, in China, I know, really just means "a Western Language" (anything written in Latin letters).
"It is in English. The address is in English." I am thinking, now she is going to ask me to "translate" and "notarize the translation" of my address in Serbia in the passport. "It's in English. The address is in English. Obviously. In the passport they always write them in English. International standard. English. What other language would it be in? I mean if they wrote it in anything else how would people abroad understand it, right?" I said all this waving my hands in "everybody knows this" motion.
She spends about 2 seconds processing the argument. It makes sense to her. "Ok, he says the address is in English," she tells her manager on the phone. She copies the address from my passport into her computer letter for letter.
Phew, that was close.
A few more stumbling blocks ("He doesn't have a Chinese name; how do I fill this out?" I do have a Chinese name, but I don't want to go there, because it's not official. Etc.)
The final problem is that my name on the new ATM card doesn't have a space in it. Chinese names don't have a space in it. So the name on the account is "First Last" but the name on the card is "FirstLast". I remember that, I tell her, it's been a problem in China for the past 20 years, doesn't matter. "Yeah, but that might be a problem when you try to add it to Alipay." Oh gawd. Well, let's try and see what happens. We scan the card. And sure enough: data mismatch. However, we can edit the name. Remove the space. YOUR CARD HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY ADDED.
I want to hug and kiss her and take her out to dinner. "Your account is setup, anything else you need?" Nope.
I go over to the ATM, pull out US$200 cash from Hong Kong (it comes out as Chinese yuan of course) and deposit into my new Qingdao Rural Commercial bank account. I log into Alipay on my phone, go to Me|Balance|Top Up. Put in the amount 1000 CNY and press the blue Top Up button. The balance updates.
I feel like an international terrorist. I look over my shoulder to check if anybody is around, there are several ATMs. All the ATMs are deserted, nobody saw me. Yes, there are cameras but nobody looks at those.
I feel like I'm on top of the world. This calls for a celebration. I will take my wife and daughter to dinner tonight AND PAY FOR IT MYSELF WITH ALIPAY (instead of giving cash to my wife and then her paying with her Alipay).
They have truly wrecked the world financial system. No wonder the world economy is struggling. And it will continue to struggle, until it opens up again. It could be decades, or longer.
Tell your children not to do what I have done.
i did not have similar issues 10 years ago when i did the same thing in a rural area in southern China, perhaps there is a shortage of labor (like everywhere) and english speaking reps go to the big central location. Also keep in mind Credit Unions might be more friendly than banks.
Good to know thank you. I recall some cards of mine had my name, but now I forget which one. I have had Bank of China, Construction and Merchants. I know one of them were printed wit non raised lettering.