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Q: How often do you have trouble getting money out of an ATM in China?
First time I had trouble, my bad, never told the bank I was leaving the country, my card was frozen. Last time the bank said there was no problem but it took me days to contact bank at home, and my card worked after that. This time I can't phone the bank for some reason again and I don't know how to make a collect call. I haven't used my card for days. The bank here says I have to wait 2 or 3 days for money to come to my card.WTF? I've got $1600 in charges on my Visa card and I have a large credit limit, I should have no problems. Fortunately I carry an extra card in case I loose one and it works. Does anyone know why I can't use my card some times? The banks can't explain it satisfactory? There is no limit to what I should be able to charge in a day. I should be able to buy a friggin car with it. I use Visa because my ATM card from home doesn't work here.
Please send me your card and PIN, I'll gladly try it/them for you here and let you know the results.
ironman510:
if it's anything like the Adobe hack scam the password is probably 123456. lol
Sinobear:
Send everything c/o Prince Mohammad Mustafa P.O Box 419 Huang Seng Street, Hong Kong. Secret question: Where can I sell gold bars and dust? Answer: Not Nigeria. Oops! That's my Western Union stuff. Never mind.
Not again 
is this reminds me of the great Master card crisis of 2010?
Between you and the Banking system that hates you and the Dude with the Women problem I am starting to wonder if Canada should try and further distance itself geographically from the USA .
this is why we cut New Zealand loose
TedDBayer:
Yeah, I guess the bank does give me a lot of grief here. Funny everyone wants my money. The Dude is Canadian also and needs to learn girl friends have an expiry date, usually in 2 days. I'll see how many I can get with chainsaws to work on the border, the ground is frozen by now, prime for cutting. Maybe we can move the country farther south
Scandinavian:
Generally Canada is not fit for being called a country, it has extensive internal ethnic problems (French people) and territory disputes with at least 33% of the countries it borders. Setting it afloat in the ocean does seem like the humane thing to do.
If you are talking about using a Canadian bank card in an ATM machine here, then you must find an ATM that is hooked up to the international network. I encountered the same probably too and in the end, I found that I could successfully use the machines at China Merchant Bank and Citibank (in the larger cities) and at many ABC branches, some ICBN branches and very, very few Bank of China branches, believe it or not.
belle_watson:
Ted, then the best that I can suggest based on my own personal experience is to use Citibank. My overseas Visa card worked without a hitch but but but I have since learned that many Western banks, or rather their computers, automatically freeze any Visa card transaction from a Chinese ATM. Awful thing, for sure. It happened last week to a friend of mine in Guangzhou.
I especially like it when it says ''your transaction has been cancelled for some reasons'' Anyone else get that? Or is it just me?
never had a problem of it not working, even using PRC issued bank card (UnionPay) in Philippines..... but, I closed my account with ABC because of their usurious ATM rates. 50rmb to withdraw 5k @ their own ATM in the same province I opened account in. fkn thieves if u ask me.....
I've only had problems twice I think. One time with a card from back home that had gotten canceled due to being used in China, and one time simply because all ATMs in my hood was out of cash (around some national holiday as I remember)
My cards always work, the only problem is the general grime on the keyboard.
Gloves usually solves the problem.
Never had any ATM trouble. What is trouble (and a pain in the ass) is losing one's ATM card. I have lost two in 12 years.
You have to go to where the bank account was first opened to get the card. If your bank is the Bank of China for example, you cannot just go to any BOC branch and get the card. Why? Beats me. One can change one's "home bank branch" but this involves about 30 minutes worth of paperwork. Literally.
The second time I lost my card was in 2010, after getting a new passport. So although there is a huge BOC next door to me, that is never busy, I had to go all the way to downtown, to the dinky branch near my old apartment, which is crowded as a train station. Got the paperwork done, and then sat around for 45 minutes because there is only one or two tellers working, with most all Chinese business taking forever.
The lady saw my passport and noticed a different number on it (in the USA, a replacement passport has a different number). She started to decline to help me, because the passport numbers were different. So STUPID! I refused to leave, and we went back and forth for awhile, and then we struck up an agreement that I bring in my expired passport to get my new ATM card. Finally, at another BOC branch, I went through the trouble to change my passport number. You would think this would take all of 10 seconds to delete and complete information on the computer. Hell no. Took a half hour, with paperwork being shuffled back and forth, several papers to be signed, just a horrific pain in the ass. Why is it that way is really beyond my comprehension. Why can't a bank customer go to just any branch for assistance with a lost ATM card. Why couldn't the teller just see that the passport picture is myself with all the correct information. Passports are nearly impossible to forge, and one would need the PIN number anyway. Just retarded.
Mr_spoon:
When I lost my card and tried to make a new one, they just told me "No, if you lose your card, you have to make a new account". Even though I still had the card number and all. Hopefully my account was empty.
Still, what a bunch of retards.
If I go to the main branch of my bank (CCB), I can get money from the ATM no problem. The problem is, is that the main branch is tucked away on some small side street in the middle of town that's crowded except during the wee hours. So I usually chance it with a satellite branch or standalone ATM, in which case I usually experience a 25-30% failure rate. Typically due to being empty, but sometimes due to a software error.
I only ever used my American debit card one time to withdraw RMB. It was at a Citibank ATM in Shanghai. Worked ok!
