Bank of America/China Construction Bank/BEA/Payroll Account ?s

[LAGurl]

Hello, coming from the US, I have an account with Bank of America here. I know China Construction Bank in HK bought out BoA in HK, and when I went on trips to HK and used their ATMs, I was not charged any fees and the rate was good as well.

Now that I'm moving to HK, and if I open a CCB account in HK, can I transfer money in my HK CCB account to my US BoA account and vice versa for free?

Other ways to transfer money back and forth to/from my US BoA account? Or another bank with presence in both US and HK that doesn't charge for transfers? I cannot use HSBC or Citibank. There's a BEA branch here too, anyone know if I can do this with a BEA US and BEA HK account?

Also, what is the term "payroll account"? Is it just a bank account where your salary checks are directly deposited from your employer? Does it have to be at a bank designated by your employer or any bank account you choose?

Sorry for the long ?s, thanks!!

[liufang898186]

Me do not know.

[kale]

you are not charged a fee by CCB is because they are in this thing called Global ATM Alliance.
Global ATM Alliance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I bet BOA is charging you a 1% spread on the money you have taken out. BOA likes to rip off people that are traveling. you will be charge US$5 if you are taking money out from other ATM machines that r not in the global ATM alliance.

unless you are a "premier" customer, you will have to pay a fee to move your money around to/from US, not to mention the fx spread.

BOA will charge you US$25-35 for the wire transfer to send money and CCB will probably charge you HK$60 to receive the money. they will also make money on the fx spread as well. it is not cheap to move your money.

HSBC US is nicer. no ATM fee to use their ATM for withdrawal and the fx rate is really the market rate. for every HK$7000, i get charged around US$900.

payroll acc is a payroll account. employer will pay directly into that. I can't tell you the detail since I don't have one and I never worked in HK.