What is the most cost-effective and hassle-free way to send money to mainland China?

I believe that readers have heard of the current online remittance tool, the foreign currency remittance back to China has been far less difficult ten years ago, basically and you use any website or APP is not much difference, the purpose of this article, in addition to the introduction of remittances to mainland China, a good tool, but also to compare their rates, the author himself is in Canada, his family at home, remittances back to the country is my rigid demand, I have been using the Western Union in the early years, I have also tried a lot of Vancouver local Chinese remittance services, but in the past two years China’s restrictions on the Western Union more and more Western Union, also tried a lot of Vancouver local Chinese remittance services, but in the past two years China’s restrictions on the Western Union more and more, the vast majority of Chinese remittance and basically have to deal with the counter, or find it convenient enough to direct, the Internet searched the circle to find a lot of good alternatives, individuals are currently mainly used Transferwise and Remitly these two services to remit money back to China.

Readers are invited to first understand the limitations on remittances to China: Domestic individuals are entitled to a maximum of $50,000 (or its equivalent in foreign currency) per person per year for settlement and purchase of remittances. This quota is the amount that an individual can get without providing additional documents other than ID cards. In fact, for those who specifically need to settle foreign exchange purchases, as long as they can present authentic documents, they can be exempted from this limit. In addition, the settlement limit of 50,000 U.S. dollars is not equal to the remittance of foreign currency is also this limitation, the actual operation of the amount of foreign exchange accounted for often more than 50,000 U.S. dollars, only can not immediately in the current year all the RMB settlement of foreign currency is still in your account, which is not a special circumstance, you need to wait for the coming year and then settle only. For more information on foreign exchange settlement, please refer to: Domestic Bank Settlement Guide.

If you want to transfer money abroad (much harder), see How to send money abroad.

It is almost impossible to transfer money from an offshore business account to a domestic personal account. Overseas personal accounts are usually able to send money to domestic RMB accounts with the same name, and on some platforms it is also possible to send money to other people’s accounts in China, but the amount of money to be sent is subject to domestic laws and regulations, as well as to overseas financial laws and regulations, and the remittance platform’s own regulations, so readers are strongly advised to know the overseas laws and regulations and the platform’s restrictions beforehand in order to complete the remittance process smoothly and efficiently.

Transferring money from an offshore non-bank account (e.g. PayPal) to a domestic bank account is not feasible, and the author personally has not been successful so far.

The necessary prerequisite for the normal use of online platforms to send money back to your home country is that you have a legal identity and bank account in a foreign country. Platforms that offer transfers of US dollars from the US require identity verification, and you need to be prepared with a driver’s license or your state ID or passport, as well as an SSN, among other documents.

Transferring RMB from abroad is fast but expensive, and transferring foreign currency from abroad to a domestic account is slow but inexpensive – this is the rule for almost all money transfer instruments, and the exact form of transfer depends on your trade-off between speed and cost.

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Comparison of remittance fees

herald

1. The rates of each remittance platform mentioned in this article are for reference only. As the service of the platforms may change at any time, readers who want to know the real-time accurate rates of a certain remittance platform should obtain them from the platform’s website or app by themselves.
2. The exchange rate that non-logged-in users see on a money transfer website or app may not represent the actual rate you’ll get when you sign up for an account, the latter usually has more favorable deals and you get a better final transfer rate

common problems

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Transferwise (first transfer of $600 free of charge)

Transferwise (now wise.com ) has 8 million customers around the world, I currently use the most online remittance transfer service, transferring the U.S. dollars back to the country and then settle the money, low rates, easy to operate, stable, and support Alipay RMB fast arrival.

Transferwise USD to CNY Reference Rate: 1 – 6.613/6.70 = 1.2

The first remittance of up to $600 USD is zero-rated, and you can use it to transfer USD back to your domestic USD or RMB account.

The image above is a screenshot of a previous transfer I made with Transferwise, my account has had longer use, you can see that my rate for transferring USD to CNY was around 1.2 %，汇美金的费率只有0.1%, which is almost negligible, this isn’t the final cost and will be talked about later, but serves to illustrate that the rates with Transferwise start very low.

You can also use its calculator on the Transferwise homepage to know the required rate in real time, and when not registered and logged in (no offers), you may only see a 1.5% rate for transferring USD to RMB.

I work in the United States, the family at home, to often remittances to the over it, my experience of using direct transfer of U.S. dollars to RMB speed fast rate is relatively high, if not in a hurry, to the domestic dual-currency debit card to transfer U.S. dollars and then the most cost-effective settlement of remittances, the following is a basic operation demonstration. The process of registering for a Transferwise account I will not be long-winded, we follow the website prompts to operate it, it is not complicated, if you want to transfer foreign currency to the domestic, you need to pass the country’s bank account and identity information, such as the U.S. bank account holders need to provide ID authentication information (SSN number, driver’s license photo, etc.), these materials should be prepared in advance.

Official video: How to send money to China (Alipay) with Transferwise (Wise).

1. Fill in the amount and currency of the remittance

The two charts above have already been posted, in this interface you can see the first time the cost of transferring money between currencies, this cost does not include the handling fee that may be charged when sending money in or out, this cost can vary greatly depending on the method of transferring money (e.g., via debit card, credit card, savings account, etc.), which will be discussed later.

Something to keep in mind:

• The maximum amount of RMB received by a single payee is 31,000 RMB for UnionPay Card and 50,000 RMB for Alipay and WeChat, if you use WeChat and Alipay to receive money, you must bind a valid domestic bank card.
• The maximum amount of US dollars that can be received by a single payee is 50,000 US dollars per year.

This means that Transferwise may not be a suitable channel for those who need to send large sums of money, but for those like me who send money to China to supplement their daily expenses on holidays, it’s sufficient because I send US dollars directly, and with a limit of $50,000 per year, I don’t usually get to use it all.

2. Fill in payee information

In the Bank account country drop-down list, select China, fill out your debit card account number in the country opened a U.S. dollar account on it, the payee information can be saved, this time to fill out the later do not have to fill out again and again. The U.S. dollars from the U.S. remittance out of the U.S. need to go through the SWIFT network, so you need to prepare your domestic bank card account bank’s SWIFT code, usually just need to contact the bank’s online customer service can be found.

There is an additional fee of $3.2 per transaction for SWIFT transfers. If you are interested, you can also ask about the fees for both the outgoing and incoming bank, my bank in the U.S. is PNC, and my bank in China is CCB, and there is no additional fee for both sides of the dollar-to-dollar transfers.

3. Confirmation of remittance amount and payee information

In the remittance amount and payee information confirmation interface, you can see the updated rate (Transferwise fee + SWIFT transfer fee) totaling 4.60 U.S. dollars, at this time the rate is still less than 0.5%, my operation time is about 12:00 p.m. EST on October 18, the remittance is expected to arrive at the domestic bank time for the October 23rd, roughly counting five working days, note that this is the “arrival” time of the domestic bank, usually after receiving foreign exchange still need to go through a set of processes to be approved before crediting the account, that is, to credit your bank card to the dollar account. This is the dollar “to” the time of the domestic bank, usually the domestic bank receives foreign exchange also need to go through a set of processes, after passing the audit will be credited, that is, the dollar to your bank card account in dollars, this process roughly one week, so add up the country’s foreign exchange dollars to the domestic bank account in dollars roughly need about 2 weeks of The process takes about a week, so it takes about 2 weeks for the foreign currency to reach the domestic bank account.

After the USD is credited to your account, you can settle your foreign exchange (convert the USD in your account to RMB). For those who are not familiar with the process of settling foreign exchange in domestic banks, you can refer to this article: Beginner’s Guide to Settling Foreign Exchange in Domestic Bank s.

4. Filling in payer information

The last step is to choose the payment method, as shown in the picture: different payment methods mean different fees, payment by credit card is the most expensive, most of the time it is not recommended, American banks basically support the Bank Debit (ACH) method, the picture shows that this is more than the payment choice is to pay with the balance of the money on the virtual account that my Transferwise account is bound to, the lowest rate is less than 0.5, if I choose ACH, the rate is less than 0.8, even Wire transfer is less than 1%, so other payment methods are naturally not considered. 0.5 %，如果我选择ACH，费率不到0.8%, even Wire transfer is less than 1%, other payment methods are naturally not considered, so remittance of the $1,000 to the domestic account, I paid no more than $10.

Zero rate for the first transfer up to $600.

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Remitly

Remitly USD to RMB Reference Rate

First remittance exchange rate special offer, normal remittance rate 1.5 %，加急2.0%, Alipay daily receipts of 50,000 RMB, within one week to the account.

1. Fill in the remittance amount and payment method

Remitly supports Alipay to receive payments to Chinese bank cards.

As shown in the chart, I remitted $100, and the exchange rate of USD to CNY was 6.70 on that day, because my account is still in the preferential terms, Remitly gave me an exchange rate of 6.76, note that after the preferential terms are used up, the actual exchange rate must be lower than the CNY exchange rate of the same day, according to the prompts in the interface in the chart, to remit money to your country by using the Remitly no-preferential account, you will be roughly charged about 1.5 According to the instructions in the interface of the chart, you will be charged about 1.5 USD %的费用，若要加急，费率约为2.0% the remittance.

Video: How to send money to China via Remitly.

2. Fill in payee information

In the picture I chose to pay by Alipay, fill in the domestic Alipay account ID (email or cell phone), last name, first name, cell phone in mainland China and other information, name pinyin may not be able to use Chinese, you can fill in the pinyin.

I learned that the daily limit for Remitly Alipay collections is 50,000 RMB.

3. Fill in the remitter’s information

Fill in the remitter information in the screen above.

4. Completion of payment details

Fill out the information for the remittance program (USA), you can choose a debit card, credit card (add 3% fee) or bank savings account.

5. Confirmation of information

Confirm the payee information, remitter, and payment details in this step, and click “Confirm and Transfer” to proceed to the review process.

My remittance for this ratio was confirmed around 9pm EST on October 17 and Remitly promised to be there on October 22 CST, which took roughly 5 business days because the account I chose to pay with was a Bank of America Savings Card, which is on the slower side of the remittance route, and debit or credit cards are supposed to be faster.

6. Viewing of receipts

The picture above is the receipt for this transfer, and you can cancel the transfer until the money is officially wired from the US bank.

15 Newcomer Bonus on your first transfer and preferential rates on your first transfer up to $800.

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PandaRemit – zero first time fee, favorable exchange rates

Panda Express supports fast RMB remittance from Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Eurozone countries, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and other countries and regions to China, with low fees and excellent exchange rates. It is also one of the few services that support transferring RMB from mainland China (up to 49,000 RMB in a single transaction).

We provide Android and Apple mobile client apps, which also support the operation of remittance initiation from WeChat. The following is an example of the operation on WeChat to demonstrate the general remittance process:

Log in (or register for an account)

You can sign up to log in with a cell phone verification code, email, or account password.

2. Initiation of remittances

After you fill in the foreign currency remittance amount, the APP will automatically calculate the equivalent amount of RMB, there is no exchange rate loss for the first remittance, and the handling fee is free, the exchange rate and handling fee for non-first remittance should be based on the APP display. After confirming the remittance amount, you will come to the “Remittance Start Screen”, where you can fill in the information of the remitter and the payee respectively.

Fill in the remitter’s information

Please be sure to fill in the payee information truthfully, otherwise the remittance is likely to fail, prepare the foreign account opening information in advance, the subsequent steps need to be verified.

Fill in the payee information

Panda Express supports WeChat, Alipay (need to bind bank card) and bank card as payee, there is verification in the following steps, please prepare the relevant information, must be operated in person.

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Xoom

2021/02/14: XOOM appears to have resumed RMB remittance business.

Attention. : It was basically confirmed in several overseas Chinese forum posts ( this one and this one ) that Xoom is now unable to send money (in RMB) to China, and it was officially disclosed that their RMB bank accounts in China have been frozen, there is no official word on the exact response time, readers are advised to consider alternative tools such as Transferwise or Remitly.

Xoom has resumed its remittance service to CNY and is able to withdraw funds directly to Alipay from non-Chinese PayPal accounts.

Xoom is PayPal’s service, in all the remittance service to China, Xoom’s American gold remittance RMB is the only one I’ve ever used that can “arrive in a second”, as long as in the background of the time weekdays between 7:00 am to 10:00 pm operation, basically click on the last confirmation button within a minute, I will receive the domestic bank RMB! The payee only needs to have a bank card in a domestic bank, not a Xoom account. Although Xoom’s rates aren’t the lowest, I’m sure many readers won’t mind considering its unrivaled speed.

Reference rate for USD to CNY remittance: 1 – 6.565/6.70 = 2.0

1. Fill in the amount and destination of the remittance

On that day the USD/CNY exchange rate was 6.70 and Xoom gave me an exchange rate of 6.565, which is an exchange rate loss of about 2.0%.

Operating between 7am and 10pm BST, money transfers are “instantaneous”.

Fill in the payee information

The payee’s bank card is any domestic debit card that supports UnionPay Global Express service.

Fill in the payer information

There is no fee for sending money from a bank account, but there is a $30 fee for sending money from a debit or credit card.

XOOM supports remittance from PayPal account, but it is not applicable to PayPal account in mainland China. Sending RMB from foreign PayPal account to domestic debit card is not easy, it is likely to provide more information, interested readers can try, I have not tried directly from a foreign PayPal account through Xoom remittance to the country, but through the first foreign PayPal account in the U.S. bank account to the U.S. dollars, and then through Xoom from the U.S. bank account to withdraw RMB to domestic, here may affect your tax return in the U.S., which I will not expand, please readers understand the details.

Xoom is fast, but I’m afraid those who want to transfer overseas PayPal account balance directly to domestic RMB account through it will be disappointed 🙁

Xoom official website

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PayPal

PayPal remittance to China is not complicated, many users often encountered the “can not transfer” problem is mostly because of the normal binding of domestic bank cards, the following will discuss how to solve this problem.

PayPal US Dollar Transfer Reference Rate

35 dollars each.

1. Affiliated bank accounts

This is the most crucial step of PayPal money transfer, which needs to be noted to successfully bind the domestic bank account:

• You must enter an account number in your country that supports US dollar transfers (dual or multi-currency) and make sure that the information requested in the chart above (bank name, SWIFT code, branch address, account number, account holder’s name, phone number) is correct and corresponds to the current status of your bank account.
• When filling in the above information and clicking on the “Associate your bank account” button in the picture above you must access it from an IP address located in mainland China, otherwise it will fail and PayPal won’t tell you why, which means that you have to turn off your internet access for a while, but the official website of PayPal can be accessed most of the time directly from China. PayPal’s website is most of the time accessible directly from China.

2. Withdrawal of funds

After successfully binding a domestic bank account, you can simply use PayPal’s “Withdrawal” function.

Withdrawal of US dollars to a domestic debit card account in US dollars costs $35 per transaction, personal experience, from the remittance to the domestic bank to notify you of the settlement of foreign exchange (phone call or text message) usually takes 2 weeks, the settlement process, please see: Domestic Bank Settlement Beginner’s Guide.

The fee for transferring USD to China (RMB) from your PayPal account is $35 per transfer.

PayPal official website.

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Swapsy

Swapsy is an online peer-to-peer exchange service platform, through which both parties voluntarily enter into an exchange agreement, with the platform acting as an intermediary to review the user’s information and manage the risk of the transaction. Both parties can create the required amount of exchange requests, you can also accept other users have created a request for exchange, the original Swapsy support through PayPal direct exchange, but now seems to have rarely seen a valid PayPal as a means of payment for the exchange of foreign exchange requests, which should be the result of a certain part of the limitations, otherwise, if you can directly pay for the exchange of foreign exchange through PayPal (to the Otherwise, if you can pay directly through PayPal for foreign exchange (to collect money from domestic WeChat Alipay accounts), this would be a super useful feature.

Currently almost all Swapsy exchange requests are paid through an intermediary payment platform called Zelle, the image below shows the prompt I got when I simulated a $500 exchange request (in RMB):

Here readers may notice the pros and cons of Swapsy, the biggest point is that there is no exchange rate loss, the USD to CNY exchange rate shown in the list in the chart is the actual exchange rate of the day, and if you pay in USD through Zelle, Swapsy only charges 0.8% commission, which is already quite cheap.

The drawbacks are also obvious, firstly you may not be able to exchange the full amount you need to exchange, unless a current user initiates a request for an amount equal to the amount you need to exchange in order to match it, then you may only be able to exchange as close to the required amount as possible, which can sometimes be very inconvenient unless you create the exchange request yourself, but this means you may have to wait a while for a match. Another issue is that the speed of exchange buying may be affected by the speed of feedback from individual users on both sides of the exchange, and here there are some force majeure factors such as the market that may cause the exchange to finalize the deal very slowly.

Swapsy may not be the most suitable tool for regular remittances to China, nor is it suitable for large sums of money, its maximum dollar amount is $2,000, and as I said earlier, the timeliness of exchange is difficult to guarantee, but it is very suitable for temporary turnover of the timeliness of the need to go is not high.

Swapsy official website.

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WesternUnion

Reference rate for USD to CNY remittance: 1 – 6.58/6.66 = 1.2

Western Union used to be the preferred tool for sending money to China, with global agent stores in more than 200 countries and regions, and cooperation with Agricultural Bank of China, Postal Savings Bank, China Construction Bank, Chouzhou Commercial Bank, Pudong Development and many local commercial banks. Although the cost of express cash remittance is very high, Western Union used to be the fastest and most secure and reliable way of transferring money to China, but it has been subjected to more and more restrictions these two years.

I am not a Western Union user, but I have heard about this service for a long time. Some of my friends who are Youtube Uploaders in China use it to send money to their home countries ( see here for the notes on sending money to China ), and many of them use it to transfer US dollars to foreign countries ( see here for the limitations on outgoing rem ittances). Because Western Union allows private-to-private transfers and remittances, before I wrote this article, I learned from the Internet that in the past two years, the domestic financial system may be increasing the restrictions on Western Union remittances, so readers should always consult the current policy of the recipient bank before operating, so as not to cause unnecessary losses.

Western Union is not complicated:

1. Fill in the amount, payment and collection methods

Recipients can choose to receive payment in cash or directly to a bank account, and payers can choose to send payment from a foreign credit card, debit card or bank account.

2. Fill in payee information

Note that the recipient and the payer (Western Union account owner) cannot be the same person, which means you cannot send money to yourself.

3. Filling in payment account information, confirmation, etc.

If you choose credit or debit card payment in the first step, you need to fill in the card information. If the choice is bank account, you need to fill in the bank account information. After confirming that the information is correct, you can remit the payment. I forgot to make a screenshot of this step, so readers should follow the instructions on their own.

One of the few private-to-private (different people) money transfer services on the market.

Here’s a more detailed Western Union review, which is on the official WesternUnion website.

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WorldRemit

WorldRemit supports 150+ countries and 90+ currencies to transfer money, with transparent fees, send money from USA to China, WorldRemit supports Alipay, UnionPay card and cell phone bill recharge.

WorldRemit USD to CNY Reference Rate: 1 – 6.55/6.66 = 1.7

1. Selection of remittance destination and collection method

WorldRemit can send money directly to domestic Alipay accounts, which is very convenient; you can also receive money via debit card; and small amounts can even be received directly as a cell phone top-up.

2. Fill in the amount

The USD/CNY exchange rate at the time of my test was 6.66, and the exchange rate loss for sending $1,000 as shown in the chart was about 1.7% with a $2.99 fee.

3. Fill in payee information

The Alipay ID in the picture above is the cell phone number tied to your Alipay account.

4. Fill in the payment account information

You can send money directly to Alipay in China.

WorldRemit official website.

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Azimo

Azimo GBP to CNY Reference Rate: 1 – 8.656/8.75 = 1.07

To register for Azimo you need the address and phone number of the European country where you have support.

1. Selection of currency and means of receipt

Azimo supports receiving payments via Alipay account in RMB.

2. Fill in payee information

Alipay ID can be filled with Alipay-bound cell phone or email.

3. Fill in the remittance amount

On that day, the GBP to RMB exchange rate was 8.75, as shown in the chart above, the exchange rate loss of this remittance is about 1%, which is still very cheap.

4. Fill in the payment account information

Azimo is a reliable tool for sending money home from European countries.

Azimo official website.

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XE

XE currently does not support USD to RMB remittance, but you can remit HKD.

XE USD to HKD Money Transfer Reference Rate

1 – 7.5908/7.75 = 2.05%

The author himself is not a member of XE, the use of experience is limited, so can only do a little limited introduction, if the reader has XE use first-hand experience, may wish to leave a message after the article.

XE was established in 1993 to provide customers in more than 130 countries around the world (from the U.S.) U.S. dollar remittance business, registered XE account needs to verify the U.S. identity, you need to provide a U.S. address, cell phone number, SSN or ITIN number, and driver’s license, state ID, passport in any item ID.

25+ years of remittance services.

XE official website.

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PaySend

PaySend USD to CNY Reference Rate: 1 – 6.5529/6.69 = 2.05

PaySend services in more than 70 countries around the world, when registering for an account you must fill in the phone number of the country where the remittance account is located, before registering you must ensure that your access to the IP address and your remittance country is consistent with the IP address, for example, if you want to remit from the United States, then you have to realize the preparation of the Internet tool to connect to the U.S. node and then open the PaySend and register for an account, otherwise, if you directly open the account from mainland China, it will be Otherwise, if you open it directly from mainland China, you will not be able to enter the U.S. phone number to register a U.S. account.

PaySend’s money transfer interface is clean and easy to use.

Fill in the remittance amount, receiving and paying account information

Send money with my invitation code 00lcnn and get your first transfer free of charge.

PaySend official website.

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TransferGo

TransferGo is a popular online money transfer service in Europe with low rates and fast speeds. The downside is that it only supports remittances from European countries, and you can send money to China, but only in US dollars, so you can’t send RMB directly. If you want to send money back home from non-European regions or want to withdraw RMB directly, it is still recommended to use Transferwise.

I test the day of the pound to the U.S. dollar exchange rate of 1.39, TransferGo gave me a thousand dollar exchange rate is 1.377, the exchange rate loss of about 1%, another charge of 0.99 pounds handling fee (within a week to), the user can choose how fast to, the faster the corresponding handling fee is higher, the most expensive day to the most expensive, but also not expensive.

TransferGo offers Android and Apple mobile apps with 2 million + users worldwide.

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Payoneer

Payoneer Reference Rate for USD to CNY Transfer: 1 – 6.555/6.671 = 2.3

Register for an account

Payoneer registration is open to domestic individuals and enterprises, applicants need to prepare the original valid documents, individuals should at least prepare ID cards and documents that can prove the actual address, enterprises need to provide business certificates, the application process later uploaded after manual review and approval, the account can be opened. Users can choose whether to open a credit card (prepaid) according to the actual needs, if you only intend to use Payoneer to collect money and then withdraw cash, you can choose a cardless account, if you intend to collect money and then directly consume, you can open a card account.

payee

There are two ways to receive money through Payoneer:

One is to let other Payoneer users directly transfer money to your Payoneer account, this way is zero fee, convenient and fast, the trouble naturally is that both parties must have a Payoneer account.

The second is to allow people without Payoneer accounts to transfer money to the virtual card tied to your Payoneer account. Each Payoneer account contains a variety of currencies, the U.S. and Chinese currencies are corresponding to the host country’s virtual account, which can receive transfers from third-party institutions in the local currency, regulated by the laws of the host country. It is important to note that these virtual accounts only accept transfers from non-personal bank accounts.

withdraw funds

Payoneer accounts are multi-currency, each currency exists in its own sub-account, each currency sub-account can apply for a prepaid Master credit card, you can set whether to let Payoneer automatically reset to this credit card and how much to recharge, like a normal credit card, you can use this credit card to spend money online and offline. The amount prepaid to this card cannot be returned to your Payoneer currency account, it cannot be reflected, it can only be spent. The amount you can withdraw is the amount in your account that is not put on the card.

Payoneer withdrawal currency depends on which country’s bank you want to withdraw to, if it’s to a domestic Chinese bank, it will automatically withdraw RMB, if it’s a US bank, then it will withdraw USD.

= I will Payoneer US dollar account in the 1000 US dollars withdrawn to the China Construction Bank account, the day the dollar to yuan exchange rate of 6.71, Payoneer gave me the exchange rate of 6.555, the exchange rate loss of about 2.3%, not cheap.

However, a large number of domestic buyers of overseas e-commerce platforms such as Amazon withdraw cash through Payoneer because of its fast speed, high amount and stable service. As shown in the chart above, my account has a monthly withdrawal limit of more than $100,000, which is equivalent to 700,000 RMB per month, a limit that is not available on most platforms that do USD to RMB transfers.

High rates, but supports large RMB withdrawals.

Payoneer official website.

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OrbitRemit

Currently supports remittance from GBP, AUD, NZD to RMB, mainly for Australia and New Zealand users, NZD remittance RMB fixed rate of 1% or so, account registration is very simple, email registration (don’t forget to go to a limited number of click on the confirmation link to complete the authentication), cell phone verification, support for mainland China cell phone number, you can directly withdraw cash to Alipay ( screenshot ), remittance process to provide an address, I did not test in depth that the Whether the service strictly requires a real address, but British, Australian and New Zealand readers have no problem at all, from the point of view of the supported collection currency, OrbitRemit has a very clear target customers, namely: British, Australian and New Zealand to Asia, especially in Southeast Asian countries.

OrbitRemit official website.

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MoneyGram

The author’s personal experience is that there are relatively not many users who use MoneyGram abroad to send money to China, and this service is very similar to Western Union, which does not have any special advantages in many similar services, such as its rates and timeliness are lacking compared to Transferwise; but there are quite a lot of people who use MoneyGram to send money abroad because there are really very few third-party tools to facilitate money transfers to foreign countries, which are restricted in the past two years, just as the similar service of Western Union. MoneyGram’s similar business has been very restricted in the past two years.

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express exchange

If you are planning to send money back home from Brazil or Australia, you can consider using Fast Money. I’m not a Fast Money user, and I only know some skinny from the official website. Fast Money uses a fixed exchange rate, supports WeChat remittance, and is fast. Readers who have experience using it may wish to leave a comment. I’ m not sure if you’re going to be able to do that.

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Citibank Global Exchange

If you have both Citibank China and overseas accounts, you can use its Global Express service, which allows you to transfer foreign currencies between your Citibank accounts (RMB transfers are not supported) instantly, with no handling fee, and can be done through Citibank Online or ATMs. Click here to learn more.

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HSBC Global Transfer

Similar to Citibank Global Express, foreign currency transfers can also be made between HSBC’s China and US accounts, although HSBC’s recipients can be out-of-bank customers (but must be family members), and real-time transfers usually reach the recipient bank within minutes. Transfers between personal accounts can be operated at HSBC counters, online banking, mobile banking and WeChat banking, and third-party remittances into support counters and mobile banking. Overseas personal global transfer limit, transfer to the third party personal account daily cumulative maximum of 50,000 U.S. dollars or equivalent amount, transfer to the overseas personal account, the daily cumulative total maximum of 200,000 U.S. dollars or equivalent amount. Click here to learn more.

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OFX

Although I can see the USD to CNY exchange rate on the page, when I tried to register for an OFX account, I failed to successfully match the USD-CNY currency combination (later confirmed with customer service that remitting CNY is only open to corporate customers), the service does not seem to support USD remittances to China at the moment, regardless of whether the remittance is in Chinese Yuan or US dollars, so I didn’t look into it. In addition, the registration of this service is more cumbersome, need to provide more personal information, personally do not recommend, if you have foreign currency to foreign currency remittance needs, you can consider.

OFX official website.

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CurrencyFair

I’ve heard that CurrencyFair’s rates are lower, it can not support USD to CNY or USD to USD remittance, the registration process is more cumbersome, and you have to provide more personal information, interested readers can take a look.

CurrencyFair

PandaRemit (PandaRemit)

I would like to advise my readers not to use any cross-border financial services with a Chinese team background, don’t expect them to respect your data privacy, don’t expect them to mechanically safeguard their respect for their clients, don’t expect them to have a basic contractual spirit and ethical bottom line, no matter how attractive the rates you see and how convenient the services are now. Yes, it’s sad that the Chinese are the least trustworthy for this type of service, but you and I both know that the reality is that the Chinese do things with the devil where you can’t see it, and with this type of service because of the sensitivity of the personal data, I strongly suggest you invest your trust in a service provider that has a legalized business culture in their own country.

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Other Channels for Remittance to China

Carrying cash

Through normal channels, you can probably only bring a maximum of 5,000 US dollars or its equivalent into mainland China at one time. This method is fine for occasional use, but is obviously not suitable for those who have the need to send money to China on a regular basis.

bitcoin (virtual currency)

Starting in 2017, China’s domestic virtual currency has been completely banned, the formal channel is impossible to use the yuan and bitcoin swap, informal channels may have, but the author has no intention to understand, much less recommend, the vast majority of underground channels are very risky. The other thing is that the price of bitcoin fluctuates too much, and there is really no need for ordinary remittance users to take such a risk.

personal check

Send a personal check is a bit of money, probably only need to be two thousandths of a month of the handling fee, the generality is also good, from any foreign bank can be sent (to China), the name is written in Chinese pinyin, MEMO memo write Chinese name and payee ID number.

Disadvantages are first of all slow, the domestic payee receives a personal check, get to the bank, the bank verification of the check will take about a month, the verification is passed before the payee will notify the payee to collect the money, and cross-country mail check loss risk is also very high.

a traveler’s check

I returned from Canada with a few times, the fee is usually 0.75% of the amount of the check, the bank in the country of remittance to receive the check as well as carry it back to the country itself is not a problem, the problem is that to the domestic bank to go to the exchange of the unexpected trouble has been the domestic bank asked to prove that the source of funds (work, proof of income, etc.), it may be more than I brought, I do not know if it is not an example. Another problem with traveler’s checks is that they can only be collected in person and carried with you, and cannot be remitted to family members, which determines their limited use.

bank wire transfer

The advantage of going to the bank wire transfer is that the remittance amount is large when the overall rate is lower, from the U.S. bank wire transfer fees to China is about 15-30 U.S. dollars (banks vary greatly), the remitter needs to personally go to the foreign bank to handle, provide identification, fill in the name of the payee, the payee bank, the name of the branch code, the SWIFT code, the Routing code and so on, confirm that the remittance is generally 24 hours to arrive, the speed is not bad. The speed is not slow.

The disadvantage is that the rate may be very high, the remittance bank and the recipient bank charges in both directions, there may also be a transit bank in the middle of the charges, so small remittances do not need to consider bank wire transfer, large remittances only makes sense, but directly through the bank large remittances to China may touch the U.S. bank regulatory line, this is a long story. Please refer to this link for the operation of foreign bank wire transfers to domestic banks.

draft remittance

Ticket remittance by the bank in the domestic bill of exchange, overseas recipients with passports and bills of exchange in the overseas designated bank withdrawals or transfers of exchange business, but also a common traditional remittance method. The advantage is that the payee can transfer the bill of exchange through endorsement, and the charge is cheaper than wire transfer: usually the bank charges RMB handling fee at 1‰ of the remittance amount. The disadvantage is that the bill of exchange is transmitted by post, the collection time is late (which will affect the speed of capital return), easy to lose, damage or forgery, low security. Troublesome procedures, if for various reasons abroad can not get the bill of exchange, easy to delay things.

Cash withdrawals at domestic ATMs with a Debit Cart

That is, in the domestic bank with VISA, MASTER logo ATM with foreign bank debit card to withdraw cash, counting the fees and exchange rate difference, with this way may make you lose more than 5% of the money, very uneconomical, unless it is really urgent, otherwise it is not recommended.

ECARD

ECARD is suitable for people who live in China for a long time or need to travel to and from China, and is limited to U.S. residents who apply for it. With this card around, you can withdraw cash in RMB from any ATM in mainland China, and the exchange rate is very low. ECARD international transfer fee is very low, about 1.5%, much lower than the VISA/MASTER card in China withdrawal fee, to ECARD transfer about 2-3 working days, there is not too slow, the only bad thing is that only have the U.S. resident status of the person can apply, although the application is completely free.

MoneyGram

MoneyGram money transfers to China do not require a bank account, no wire fees, no intermediary bank fees, and are fast, but can only be handled over the counter on business days. I have used this service once abroad, and if I had the choice, I would rather use an app that can be operated online.It is worth noting that MoneyGram is a popular tool for sending money abroad in China.

Spend money directly in China with an overseas credit card

Regular credit cards charge 1% for purchases outside the U.S. on the VISA/MASTER network, and there may be exchange rate losses. However, MBNA, Capital One, Wachovia, Fleet and other credit cards do not charge. (This information is collected by the author and the Internet for reference only, please check with the relevant credit card issuer if you are interested).

Bank of China USA

If you have a Chinese bank account in both the US and China, you can make a deposit through the Bank of China in the US to the Bank of China in China Tiger Head, wire transfer (USD) 24 hours to the account, receipts can be made in USD or cleared into RMB with a limit of 2999 USD and a wire transfer fee of 20 USD.

Happy Hour (Chinese restaurant)

The service has long since been shut down for unknown reasons.

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Beginner’s Guide to Domestic Bank Settlements

To receive and settle a foreign exchange in mainland China without any problems, you usually need to go through the formalities.

Get a multi-currency debit card

It is recommended that you open a dual-currency or multi-currency debit card at the nearest counter of any of the four state-owned banks, and the specific process will not be repeated here. Multi-currency debit card, as the name suggests, is a debit card that allows the existence of multiple currencies in the account and is freely convertible to each other, at present, all major domestic banks basically have at least dual-currency debit card products that support RMB and US dollars in the class I account, when you open it, you need to talk to the counter to make it clear, you can consult the counter of the bank or the bank’s official website: Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank.

The reason why you need to be nearby is because the first time or the first few times you may need to go to the counter in person to handle the foreign exchange account, behind the foreign exchange account, individuals in the case of a single not more than 5,000 U.S. dollars, basically do not need to be handled in person again, the bank will directly help you to foreign exchange account, you only need to be in the mobile banking app on their own to settle foreign exchange (foreign currency into Renminbi) can be, so the individual to remit foreign currency from abroad with the settlement of foreign currency and is not as So, remittance and settlement of foreign exchange from abroad is not as troublesome as you think.

Inward remittance of foreign exchange from abroad

The platforms for sending money to China I’ve detailed in the linked article, so I won’t repeat them here.

The operation of all remittance tools is similar, nothing more than the establishment of an account, fill in the remittance currency and amount, fill in the recipient account information, fill in the account information of the payer, confirm and other steps. Fill in the payee information, you will need to bind your domestic multi-currency bank card, in advance to collect your account bank information, such as bank name English translation, account bank address English translation, SWIFT code, etc., the remittance tool is very likely to be used in the binding, if they are not sure how to get access to this information, do not get their own Baidu, should be directly contacted by the account bank’s online or telephone customer service, let them tell you.

Waiting for bank notification

The author’s family in the domestic experience of receiving remittances from abroad, the first few times the domestic major banks personal account received foreign exchange, the bank account (that is, the bank will receive foreign exchange to your debit card foreign currency account) before the phone will notify you in person to go to the counter to settle the foreign exchange, if you have just begun to remit money to the country, to remind the recipient to keep the cell phone smooth, so as not to delay the settlement of the foreign exchange.

Since you will most likely have to go to the counter in person the first few times you settle your money, I would previously recommend that you choose your nearest bank to open a multi-currency debit card for convenience.

Generally in person after a few remittances, the bank will not require you to personally go to the counter to settle remittances, and will not call again (at this time the foreign exchange has not yet been accounted for), but rather the use of cell phone text message notification form to notify you that the foreign exchange has been accounted for.

Counter or self-service settlement

If the amount of foreign currency is less than 5,000 U.S. dollars, in person to the counter settlement generally only need to show personal ID card, the camera took a picture on the line, if the amount is more than 5,000 U.S. dollars, the bank is likely to require you to produce more information to prove that the source of income, to be prepared in advance. This is just my personal experience, does not mean that 5000 dollars or less counter settlement of foreign exchange “must” what information do not have to provide, this depends on the specific bank, I returned to China when the Bank of China settlement of a few 5000 dollars or less (each more than 4000 points) of the U.S. dollar remittances, the first is the phone contacted me directly on the account! The first one was credited directly after contacting me by phone, the second one was credited directly without calling me, but in the third one the back office of the bank of China called to ask me about my source of income, and I emailed them my proof of employment in the U.S. After that, the checkout (I was already abroad at that time) didn’t give me a phone call or ask me to come to the counter in person, and it has always been credited automatically now. The first two times I used the CCB (which I used relatively little), I was notified by phone to go to the counter in person to account for the settlement of foreign exchange, and the third and later were automatically accounted for, I just need to self-service settlement on the app, so the caliber of the foreign exchange accounting and settlement process between the bank and the bank there are differences in the process, and there may even be geographical differences, which can only be experienced by yourself.

After the foreign exchange is credited, there is that the remittance of foreign currency to your debit card foreign currency account, you only need to log in to the bank’s cell phone App, in which to find the settlement menu, enter the selection of the settlement account, and then self-service settlement will be converted from foreign currency to RMB can be, the exchange rate is generally according to the day of the foreign exchange rate with the RMB exchange rate to, I have the past few years of experience of the settlement, the domestic line of personal foreign exchange settlement seems to be a zero-rate.

If readers with extensive experience in foreign exchange settlements would like to add to this, they may wish to leave a comment.