Now, Ex-Pat, time to look into the problems @ BOC, imaginary scenario -

1 - you've been initially detained for teaching illegally. Your passport has been confiscated, even though you've signed and fingerprinted the statement apologizing for breaking China's visa regulations.

2 - you are set free and given a few days to pay your massive fine. You visit your branch of BOC with your passport retention receipt to accept an urgent transfer of funds to pay your fine, the cost of your subsequent 10 day visa, and your one-way ticket back home in disgrace.

3 - because your transferor abbreviated your name, you get into a fight @ bank! The bank won't budge. Your family can't assist you fast because the transferor won't re-issue the transfer until the BOC returns the initial transfer attempt. Delay of 3 weeks. Rot in a Chinese jail!

BTW, there is no longer the small appliance at the counter for customers to award 5 stars to 1 star for 'teller service'. In case you didn't know!

Pity you won't find yourself in UK for a fortnight or so. Lloyds Bank is the one to open an account with if too much time has elapsed to do a 'credit check' prior to opening an account. All the new immigrants pour into Lloyds.

Dear Mrs E,

Thx for your 2 recent emails.

I will visit the bank on Thursday or Friday armed with a photocopy of your email.

I expect that'll do the trick. I'll keep you updated.

I dunno why the local bank regulatory office has apparently taken the umph against western life insurance companies.

Besides, one would expect banks and bank regulators here to welcome foreign currency remittances.

It seems I'm not alone in experiencing unforeseen problems at the BOC!

http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/forum/index.pl?read=147918;expand=1#m_147918
Trouble @ Bank of China, 3 emails

It may well be as you say. Not writing the full name or a slight variant thereof that differs from the full name given in my passport is a problem I have also had in China in a special bank transfer business after I sold my house with a piece of land somewhere in Africa. The agent had to send the money to China, I arranged that with him before departure. One of my four first names in the passport was not given in full but in an abbreviated form, and I had a lot of fuss with an incompetent bank official. I simply insisted on seeing the manager, the matter was resolved; the idiot of unwilling bank clerk was criticized by the manager in front of me, and other people around could even hear it. I even didn't have to make some noise like in the Hangzhou bank the first time. I left the bank as a winner instead of a loser, even if there was some hassle and it took a bit of my time.

That's China - and that's me! Do the same, the issue should finally be resolved if you do do it right. Success!

I'm convinced the problems I encountered @ bank emanated because the bank applied its rigid rules and regulations, and that those go beyond standard international banking procedures in terms of rigidity.

But as the problems seem to continue for him, it's quite likely that he failed to do the preliminary paperwork. Or he did not shout loud enough in Chinese to put unwilling bank clerks in their place.

I have ALWAYS done the preliminary paperwork correctly.

Previous problems @ bank have been caused by western banks abbreviating my full name despite having been given the necessary transfer details by myself in advance, including my full name identical to that displayed in my passport.

On a couple of occasions I had lost my temper bigtime and was threatened with ejection from the bank by security if I didn't calm down.

I'm convinced the problems I encountered @ bank emanated because the bank applied its rigid rules and regulations, and that those go beyond standard international banking procedures in terms of rigidity.

When you hear me call China shitty, I mean it's literally dirty, and some of the state school and university posts, you find yourself wallowing in filth, windy corridors, left to your own devices if you need to take a break.

I think you must be a fastidious bloke as regards cleanliness of your environment. However, many of us place much less importance on that than you do.

Best to throw your lot in with wicked training centres I believe. I have never had much trouble with training centres.

I wouldn't advise anyone to throw his/her lot in with 'wicked' TCs , or any TC at all! They are ALL shitty employers, in my view!

Yes, he once taught illegally and Scottish accent is hard to understand for English learners. He reported about similar problems a few years back. Bank people in China are often incompetent when it comes to foreign matters such as bank transfer or either receiving or sending money via Western Union. But as the problems seem to continue for him, it's quite likely that he failed to do the preliminary paperwork. Or he did not shout loud enough in Chinese to put unwilling bank clerks in their place. I did the same once in Hangzhou after I felt pissed off by a person not properly dealing with my request to send money from China by Western Union for a third time. I wasn't very nice then and told them something about their non-professionalism in a loud voice so that they called the bank manager, and then it was suddenly sorted out in minutes. Wonders may even happen in China...

Chinese don't like to lose face, especially when a foreigner shouts to them in Chinese because of their incompetence and unwillingness. After my comments on their incompetence, I was asking them if they had their training in a monkey house and were fed with bananas during that training for their job at the bank. That medicine worked incredibly well as I finally got what I wanted after a lot of hassle.

They must have twigged that you've been teaching illegally in China for years and years!

Westerners in China will have to deal with SURLY PSB officials and INTRUSIVE bank staff at one time or another.

FTs here will also encounter obstruction, unfairness and deceit from their employers from time to time.

It's their country, not ours. One needs to have a kind of pioneering attitude in order to surmount the obstacles. For many westerners, they can't accept the different culture here. So, they depart China ASAP, never to return.

That said, I wish each FT here an enjoyable and profitable experience at his/her workplace and outside of it.

To be fair to that bank, how can they trust what you tell them after they have seen all the consecutive spousal visas in your passport?

They must have twigged that you've been teaching illegally in China for years and years!

What's wrong with that is he hasn't been teaching illegally in China for years. He proves he has no need to work as he get's his pensions which he's been collecting for years if you pay attention to what he says, and has said..

Hope it all comes right. Interesting aspect of a retired FT's life in China.

Dear Ms E........,

My pension plans XXXXXXX and XXXXXXX

This morning, Tuesday 24th October, the BOC texted my agent, who just happens to be my Chinese wife, that a TT had been received for processing into my account.

This afternoon I turned up there, after which I was questioned as to why XXX Life Insurance Co of XXXXXX, AN INSURANCE COMPANY, GOD FORBID, was attempting to send me GBP.

I suspect that whenever foreign currency is TT'ed to a western individual in the PRC, bank officials reserve the right to ask why said individual has arranged said transfer(s)! The word 'pension' cuts little ice here. It boils down to a matter of TRUST, and western individuals aren't held in high esteem in that regard!

I will have to return 2 days later to get the transfer effected, maybe, maybe not!

It seems to me that Chinese banking procedure is weird, but not wonderful!

What would help me, and later my wife, after I am deceased, is an e-mail from yourselves to me stating that INSURANCE COMPANIES by name in the west also remit pensions and bond encashments, completely distinct services from INSURANCE/ASSURANCE.

Yours sincerely,

XXXXXX

On Tuesday, October 24, 2017, 6:25:57 PM GMT+8, Mrs E wrote:

I am out of the Office until the 25 October 2017 and will deal with my emails on my return.

The problem seems to have been caused by the fact that your TT advice doesn't SPECIFY the reason for the proposed TT from yourselves to me.

I told them it was an annual private occupational pension. However, my bank is sceptical. It is controlled by a central regulatory office, and the boss thereof is a Commie bar steward.

My better half is having difficulties with that office re attempted bond encashments through another insurance company, one that administers my wife's bond, said bond having been transferred previously from me to her. The bar steward refuses to meet my wife. He is aloof and full of himself.

Yours sincerely,

XXXXXX.