Is it common to use personal checks (cheques) in Hong Kong?
I will be studying at the University of Hong Kong, and I have a bunch of little fees to pay, and in the US I hate giving cash for fear someone will loose it or not record it was me who paid. Especially at HKU with thousands of students.
I have a US bank account (Citibank) which is USD based (and of course I can use in HKG by withdrawing in HKD, at the USD-HKD ATM/banl exchange rate given), but I assume I cannot simply write a personal checkbook check that I have now, which I assume is a USD check? I have done some reasearch iont his and ther ie ssome system that was implement at the end of Deceber 2000 where USD checks were somehoiw accepted in HKG and go though a special faster clearnign system than before. Does anyone know about this? Also I know bank drafts are popular as are other types of things where you go the bank and get a check, but I would pay cash over having to go the bank first to get a bank draft (which I seem to find a unusually popular in HKG).
I know there are many other banking issues, but I do not have any questions on that, but other cans ask if they wish.
I also do not want to go trough the hassel of opening a seprate Hong Kong with HKD checking account either at Citibank, with whom I have a long relationship, thus HSBC is out of the picture. Could I open a HKD account in the US and write checks from it to give to people in HKG. I would probably write less than 10 total over 4 months.
Thanks.