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Transferring cash out of China

Wilhelm (2 posts) • +1

Just saw this thread on money transfer. China Construction Bank told me I cannot transfer any money from my CCB account to my German bank account.
The only option I am left with is to get the money in cash and bring it over to Germany to exchange into Euro.
Has anybody done something like this? Any advice?

herenow (357 posts) • +1

I believe the legal limit on taking cash out of the country is 20,000 RMB per trip.

However, I am dubious about the conclusion that "The only option I am left with is to get the money in cash and bring it over to Germany...". There are various other options discussed here and elsewhere on the forums, such as transferring funds through the Bank of China.

CaeruleusCaeruleus (51 posts) • +1

Don't waste your time with other banks. Bank of China is the best way to get money out. You will need a bunch of documents, but they will let you transfer up to the full value of the pay that you have received in China and paid tax on.

michael2015 (784 posts) • 0

Wilhelm. I connected by CCB account to the Chinese version of PayPal - you can move small amounts out regularly - especially to family (note the reason in the comments field) - but there's a daily and annual cap.

Check Paypal China's terms of service for details.

Remember - this is PayPal China - which complies with the rules and regulations of SAFE and China. The Chinese version of the app can ONLY be downloaded from here.

Paypal charges a nominal premium over SWIFT - so it's only effective up to a few thousand dollars or EUR, aside from the convenience. After that - it's more cost effective to use SWIFT - documentation pains aside.

Hope that satisfies your requirements.

herenow (357 posts) • +4

@Ocean: I looked into this in some depth at one point. I concluded that, compared to the other options available, bitcoin is ill-suited for the purpose of moving funds from China into a foreign bank account.

First, there are a lot of risks. Depending on how you proceed, these may include: questionable legality in China, risk of counterparty rip-off if using localbitcoins.com, exchange rate risk vs. traditional currencies, bitcoin wallet hacking risk, private key mishandling risk, fund sequester risk if somebody decides your transaction looks suspicious (which is more likely when bitcoin is involved), bitcoin exchange (i.e., institutional) solvency risk, and bitcoin platform risk.

Second, the process is complex: self-education about the mechanics of bitcoin, bitcoin wallet selection/creation/management, and/or bitcoin exchange selection & account setup, plus tax declarations if your bitcoin value appreciates enough while you’re holding it, and also the three to five separate transactions (depending how you set things up) needed to complete the actual funds transfer process from beginning to end.

I never got around to fully working out the costs, since the considerations above were enough for me to rule out bitcoin as an option. My understanding is that moving funds via bitcoin is a fair sight cheaper than SWIFT transfers. However this advantage is diminished by the need to pay declared or de facto commissions on two currency transactions instead of one (RMB >> BTC >> foreign $ {versus} RMB >> foreign $), and by the tendency of bitcoin’s value to be far more volatile than traditional currencies.

Ishmael (462 posts) • 0

Bitcoin - distant impression - Too Much Monkey Business, Chuck Berry, about 1960.

cloudtrapezer (756 posts) • 0

Bitcoin is a component of the libertarian dystopian dream. Live on your private island/a space station/in a glass dome on Mars/ with house slaves to entertain you and a private army to keep hoi polloi out. Monkey business indeed.

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