All About China > Your trip to China

Money Changers?

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brett:
I took a lot of RMB with me. I took some sterling with me to change and it was a bloody nightmare. If you are visiting a small city then don't bother with this. It took me and my lady an hour to get money changed, that's after we went round about 10 banks looking for one that would do it. There were forms to fill in, queuing to do, notes to check about 5 times. They even rejected one of my £20's because it had two small holes in it where it had obviously once been stapled.

My credit card didn't work in China except in hotels. But I guess if you called them first then they might relax their security checking.

Martin:
I took cash with me on my last trip.  I plan to do the same on my upcoming trip.  I carried $4000 Canadian dollars.  I was a little nervous of this, but I kept the money well hidden.

I would convert $1000 at a time.  I had intended to convert my money at the bank, however, we always ended up finding people that wanted to convert my money for me, and at a competitive rate to the exchange rate.

The first time I did this, I was worried about getting counterfeit money, although my lady was with me, and she was inspecting every bill that I had.  The second time, the lady that was doing thre exchange was drawing the money directly out of the ATM.

I suppose this is a little riskier way to go, but it worked for me...it may not work for you.  If you go this route, use a little caution.

David5o:
Martin,

I've never had any problems changing my hard currency up in this way, and i did that for years, I only ever changed money at the Bank in an emergency, ....well if you can call it that, ...meaning i couldn't find my money changer in time!!...lol!!

David.....

feisnik:
The ATM is just so easy. If you bank with Bank of America, you can withdraw at China Construction Bank for no fees. As a FYI usually the 2000 Yuan limit is per machine. You can use multiple machines or multiple banks to withdraw this much. But definitely call the bank in advance to raise your daily limit and to tell them what days to allow transactions in China and any other countries you will fly through (i.e. sometimes I have layovers in Japan and South Korea and may use an ATM or my card there).

Irishman:
Last two times I went with €500 (in fresh bills out of an atm machine).

First time I just changed €100 in the airport and used my Mastercard to take out 3000 RMB from Bank Of China atm's (best rate, highest daily withdrawal limit for me ) .
I do this until I reckon the meaning euro's converted will do me. I then change it all at once, queuing in banks is boring, and you have to queue for everything in China.

The second time I had 900 RMB left over from the first visit and only had to make a couple of withdrawals from the atm before changing the cash.
The largest note is only 100RMB which is less than €10 so your wallet stuffs up fast - make sure your hotel room has a safe, most do.

Make sure your credit card company knows you are going to be using it there. My Halifax Visa debit card refuses to work in any atm there, but my MBNA Mastercard works fine, if neither worked it would be a cheap holiday with only €500 in funds!! ( thats enough for a decent enough trip though , just not a lot of present buying!), at least you could pay for the hotels online if the worst came to it.
I would definitely bring a reasonable amount of cash in case your plastic or travellers cheques are not accepted there.

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