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Cheapest way to wire money to friend's China bank account?

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  1. #21

    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Posts
    567

    You can transfer between Alipay accounts without buying anything. Daily free transfer limit is 50K RMB. I don't think you can transfer between Alipay and Paypal.


    Quote Originally Posted by orionx999:
    Hi all. Can somebody tell me the cheapest way to wire money to China? I need to wire about $1000 HKD to a friend in China this time, but I have more family and friends in China that I would like to wire money to in the future. Here are the two best options I can think of so far:

    1) Try a Western Union outlet in Hong Kong. However, for $1000, won't I be charged an exorbitant fee?

    2) Open a China bank account in Shenzhen. Does anybody know the bank to bank wire transfer rates? Will there be problems if I repeatedly wire money to other friends and family on a continual basis?

    3) Try a money changer in Hong Kong. People say this is the riskiest way because they might just rip me off and never transfer the money over.

    I heard that you can't transfer money from Alipay to Alipay account unless I purchase a product (ie. purchase on Taobao) - is this true? Can I transfer from Paypal to Alipay? (I can't read Chinese well so I can't read any information on Alipay).

    Anybody else have any good suggestions?
    orionx999 likes this.

  2. #22

    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Posts
    1,675

    If you have a bank account in China (e.g. HSBC Premier China) and you write an onshore RMB cheque and give it to that person, are there any fees involved in banking cheques (i.e. the usual way people do elsewhere; write a cheque; give it; bank it etc.)


  3. #23

    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Location
    HK
    Posts
    2

    Doesn't Wechat have something similar to Alipay or QQ etc?

    Red envelope or something?

    Thing is I think you might need a China bank account to deposit into it etc.

    But red pocket transfers should be free. Don't know what's the upper limit though...

    I've sent couple thousand RMB to frds this way. Don't remember any charges etc. It was instant too.


  4. #24

    Red envelope of Wechat is a popular method to transfer money between persons in China. Same with Wechat Pay, you need to link your RMB bank account to your wechat account before you can transfer or pay with wechat.

    Quote Originally Posted by AmgTrdr:
    Doesn't Wechat have something similar to Alipay or QQ etc?

    Red envelope or something?

    Thing is I think you might need a China bank account to deposit into it etc.

    But red pocket transfers should be free. Don't know what's the upper limit though...

    I've sent couple thousand RMB to frds this way. Don't remember any charges etc. It was instant too.

  5. #25

    Cheque charges are set by both parties' banks. Can be different. And may not be totally free unlike HK, depending on the situation.

    Quote Originally Posted by dossier:
    If you have a bank account in China (e.g. HSBC Premier China) and you write an onshore RMB cheque and give it to that person, are there any fees involved in banking cheques (i.e. the usual way people do elsewhere; write a cheque; give it; bank it etc.)