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Published: January 27th 2010
Going to the bank in China is part adventure and part torture session. And because it’s so unpredictable, it tends to be somewhat newsworthy. No trip to the bank is ever the same, at least for me. Here are a few of my recent banking experiences for your amusement:
Transferring funds
We had some issues with the online payment option so I tried to pay the landlord directly by going into the bank. We have the same bank as the landlord, and I have previously transferred a hotel deposit to someone in China by going into a branch of his bank, giving the teller cash and his account number, and it went fairly smoothly. I even saw a printed confirmation with his name on it to ensure I had given my money to the right person.
With the above experience giving me false hope, and many stories from Mark about his tortuous experiences navigating the Chinese banking system (rules, traditional Chinese characters being required on many forms) I was not sure what would happen.
This transaction did not go well. I waited in line after taking a number and when it was finally my turn I got a bad vibe from the lady I was seated across. She did not seem pleased to see me or my English speaking self. I said I wanted to give this money to my landlord in Chinese and she grunted and shoved a form at me. The form was in Chinese with nary a translated word anywhere on the form. I was totally lost. I said I can’t read the form. She said what I assume was something along the lines of “not my problem”. She told me I had to write the landlord’s Chinese name on the form and the account number in the appropriate spots. I ended up asking a stranger who I had sat next to in line if she could copy the guy’s name onto the form for me. She agreed. Nice stranger.
Then I went back and wrote the account number on the form and shoved the form back through the plexi-glass window. Nothing like a screen of plastic to help ensure the bad communication remains challenging at all times. She immediately caught an error on the form. I had missed a number in the account number. I tried to put it in after the fact but she rejected it and said I had to start over. I said “I can’t start over. I have to get someone to write the name again!” and she said nothing. I then lost it. I really did. I was just having a bad day to start and this rigidity was just too frustrating on this particular day. I said “you are not nice! Give me back my money” and after she passed me back my big stack of cash, I stormed out of the bank.
I felt bad for being an ugly American but sometimes the rules are just too much. I know for a fact, that in this paper based system, my silly little form was not a big part of the documentation trail. She was typing all the info into a computer anyway. So why not cut a foreigner a little slack? It had gone so well at the other bank when I did a very similar transaction. I guess that made it more frustrating. Knowing that it’s somewhat arbitrary. Oh and I should also note that whenever I go to the bank, I hear a lot of screaming and yelling by other customers. I can only guess that they are as frustrated with the process as I am.
Based on the above, I was extra bummed to lose my ATM card and face another round with the Chinese banking system.
Lost ATM card Part 1 of 4.
How did I lose the card you might wonder? I have no idea. I think, though can’t be certain, that I left the card in the ATM the one time I was withdrawing money with my headphones on (note to self…) Regardless, this is my personal, Chinese bank account I set up for my freelance payments (and is thus quite low on funds at all times). I still had money in the account though and I still wanted to get paid in the future so I set off to get a new card.
I naively returned to the bank in which I’d so easily opened my account. I was immediately told that I was not at the right location for reporting a lost card. I had to go to another location. The nice woman wrote the address down for me (in Chinese) and I asked for some hints about the location so I had at least a clue about where to go. I had a street and a metro stop, and I had my passport (thankfully the first woman told me to bring it).
Lost ATM card Part 2 of 4.
I exited the subway and asked a guy for help with my little scrap of paper and he told me the other street name written on my paper and pointed me onward. I knew it would be a big branch of the bank and once I knew the cross street I was in good shape.
I found the bank and discovered a take-a-number machine in the lobby. I chose the “non cash report lost” option and out popped my number. Fun, so far. I sat in a hard plastic chair for a solid hour waiting for my number to come up. It might have been longer than an hour. I nodded off a couple of times. Every time someone sat next to me, they would look at me, look at my number and then watch me watch the board. I can read numbers, folks. And I can understand the Chinese machine voice announcing the numbers and the desks to which the numbers were being assigned.
Finally, it was my turn. I got lucky and had an English speaking teller. I explained I lost my card and she explained not much. I was asked to fill out a form and she was nice and told me where to write what. We got through it in one try, and then after she took scannedf my forms, my passport and did a lot of stamping with her various red inked stamps (called chops), I was told to come back in a week. I explained I could not come back in a week, as this was before I left for the US, and she said that was fine, I should come any time after a week has passed.
Lost ATM card Part 2 of 4
I returned to the bank with my receipt in hand, got my number and sat to wait. Things went quickly and I thought I was having a lucky banking day…until I got to the desk and was told I needed my passport. Sadly, my passport was at the Chinese Exit and Entry Bureau so I would have to come back. My receipt was not of use. My “file” with the previously scanned passport in it, was apparently not accessible.
Lost ATM card Part 3 of4
Went back with passport and receipt this time and got my number and sat down. No luck today. Two hours passed slowly. I had to be home to meet the school bus, so I started getting nervous I’d have to do this again another day.
It was finally my turn (again). I presented my receipt and my passport and then waited while the teller disappeared in the back. She came back with some papers (I assume my original application form) and I was instantly worried about how long this would take. Turns out, no card was waiting for me. Nope. The week was some sort of crazy waiting period and I had to sit through more papers, more stamping of forms and FINALLY she pulled out a pack of cards, unwrapped the plastic off the pack, selected one from the top and my ATM card was issued. Then my forms were scanned, my passport was scanned (again) and I was told there was a fee for the new card (and this is in addition to my previously paid loss reporting fee). I knew better than to argue or ask questions. I just said okay.
I jumped in a taxi and raced home to meet the school bus. I had officially killed an afternoon and experienced some more “real China” moments.
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Ari
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greasing the wheels
Wow... there's more going on there than I had any idea! I'm trying to imagine my bank surviving for twenty minutes (at least as a consumer bank) if that was the necessary process for obtaining a card. This entry reminds me so much of the New Yorker articles about driving in China. It often seems they've created a system that prioritizes radically different things, though American bureaucracy is not inherently more logical -- plus some 'extra fees' to help it all along! Naturally! It is wonderful, also, that you're able to deal with the system in Chinese to any extent.