Have any foreigners used Western Union to transfer money to their own Chinese bank account? If so, how did it go? Also, if you know of a better, cheaper way please share.

I tried using Transferwise but they said they could only send money to an account opened with a Chinese ID card.

Some years ago I received money through Western Union from either Cambodia or Thailand, don't remember which, sent by a private individual. For reasons I also can't remember I could only get it at the main branch of the Agricultural Bank. Took awhile too, but it worked. I had an account at BOC at the time, but they couldn't receive it directly.

I only have a BOC account. It's the fact that I'm a non Chinese account holder that worries me

I use PayPal for incoming and outgoing. Sending CNY into USD was easy. Receiving USD, then converting it into CNY - the usual pain - accentuated by Paypal screwing up the initial transfer - that took months to get my full refund.

For wire transfers - it's a bit more expensive for CNY->USD, but for inbound wire transfers - it's actually less expensive and less troublesome than a trip to the bank to fill out the forms, wait in line, find parking, etc.

Do NOT use Paypal's internet service - their responses akin to a useless idiot bot. Their telephone service however - stellar.

Thanks Michael

Would still like to hear of anyone's experience with Western Union by the way. Paypal seems to be geared mainly American citizens.

@cloudtrapezer
Actually, I registered PayPal china, as that's the only way to link it to your chinese bank account.

However it requires the recipient/sender to also have a PayPal account linked to their EU/UK/et al account.

If you're receiving money in china - once it's in your PayPal china acct - then you just execute a withdrawal aka wire transfer to your linked chinese bank account.

For sending to other PayPal accounts in other major currencies (aka EUR and GBP) - just specify the sending currency - PayPal extracts their fee from the currency exchange.

If you have chinese friends - many of the tabao traders use alipay accounts on both sides of the transaction.

Thanks Michael I will look into it again. When I tried before, Paypal referred me to its subsidiary Xoom that seems to require a US bank account.

yep - that's paypal-usa. Gotta register on paypal-cn.

You asked for experience so I give you mine. I used Western Union to pay for my tuition at private language school in Kunming. My bank back in US where the funds originated closed my account without notice, and mailed me a check for the balance. I was without access to funds for two weeks and had to make multiple calls to my bank’s fraud unit.

Also had to get my school to write an affidavit showing the money was used to fund tuition at a legitimate educational instituition, direct them to my school’s website, etc. The bank explained that WU has a history of fraud in China, and my transfer tripped their fraud controls. Everything OK in the end, but I’m gun shy, haven’t used WU since. Glad for those who have used it without difficulty.