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Q: Cash or Card ?
At home I like most people use efpos (not Credit) in most shops
however in China the only time the card comes out is to put it in the hole in the wall gangs outlet to get cash
and I tend to spend less this way.
is it the same for you ?
11 years 34 weeks ago in Money & Banking - China
Nope, at least with me. I dislike having a lot of cash on me, and even if do have a home safe, I also dislike keeping money in it, maybe just enough for an emergency at most. I do use the plastic in every place that will accept it, from restaurants to markets (grocery stores) and similar.
For me, without meaning any offense to anyone, yuan still look and feel like play money, if I handle cash, I still do not have the concept of value of yuan in my mind. Using the debit card, I do divide by 6 to get an idea of relative value vs money in dollars and decide to buy or not.
The only time I use the plastic is if I forget to withdraw some cash from the atm...
In China i'm 100% cash, in UK as far as possible I'm the exact opposite.
i always use my card when it comes to buying or spending money.......i only keep enough cash in my wallet to get me from one place to another...............taxi fees cigarettes...etc..........safe and more convenient
When I use my ATM card to withdraw cash at China Construction bank, I get hit with a $12USD ATM fee for every 2500 RMB withdrawn. At least the bank is honest about the conversion rates so I don't lose any money in the conversion other than the ATM fee (according to google's money conversion rates). The more often I withdraw money from the ATM, the more money I lose to fees, so I always withdraw the maximum amount (2500RMB).
When I use my Capital One Visa card, I don't pay any fees for making purchases. The conversion of USD to RMB for the purchase is completely fee-less. The only downside is that not many places other than online webstores will accept the Capital One Visa card.. If I try to get cash with the Capital One card, of course I get smacked around with a very large $25 USD "Cash Advance" fee, but this fee applies if I get cash with my credit card in the USA as well.
The overwhelming majority of the time, I carry around 300 RMB with me in cash and I carry no credit or ATM cards with me. I keep a couple thousand RMB at home in a hidden place so that I can refill my wallet without going to the ATM so often, also so that I have money there to pay the rent and power if I forget it's due.
Whenever possible, I buy things online (tmall.com, amazon.cn) and use my Capital One Visa card. I use my Chinese address. I've also bought things from the USA and Canada, shipped here to China but I had to give them an English translated address. I was surprised it was delivered here as not many people here speak english, but it wasn't a problem.
I just wish that websites like hpshopping.com would ship to China. The laptops they sell in China are "de-featured" which means they're just basic models. Trying to buy a decent high-end laptop ($1700+) here in China is difficult. A lot of Chinese keep trying to tell me that Acer is high quality laptops, but to me, that is just a punchline of a bad joke. Trying to find a fully decked out HP Envy or Dell XPS series laptop is hard, even on China's best tech web stores. /end rant
In China I only use cash, back home I always used debit card.
In China I only used cash. In America, I usually use my debit card. I have cash at this time only because I don't have direct deposit for my part time job right now. If I quit that place after being hired elsewhere, then I probably won't have cash.
Card. In shenzhen most places accept cards so its more convebient. I hate Chinese ATMs, the only country I have experienced that the ATMs actually run out of money. WTF?
Plus Chinese take 4 years per person at the ATM, they need to read everything 5 times and deposit and move their life savings around while giving zero shits about the huge line up behind them.
So i take out cash for small things and emergencies and use my card for the rest.
icnif77:
Try CMerchantB debit ATM (Gold account with 1000 Rmb opening deposit) with Visa/Mc logo. It works around the world, funds deducted from Rmb holdings with 'spot exchange rate' applied. That's brazillion years old thread.
I keep two accounts in different banks. On a card I just deposit some small money for the usual expenses and I keep my savings on the other one that seldom use.
Only cash, and am careful to take withdrawals only on the ATM's inside banks. Nervous about skimmers, I would trust my home bank to reimburse/protect from them, but not here.
