Third Time's a Charm: Opening a Bank Account

So after much research and hesitation I finally got around to opening a bank account. It was actually a pretty spur-of-the-moment thing, since I happened to be in the area, had some free time, and thought, well, why not?

So the bank I decided to open an account with is 華南銀行--Hua Nan Bank, because it was one of the two banks on campus (the other being Chunghwa Post which doubles as both a post office and a bank), because it seemed to be widespread throughout Taiwan, and because it's one of the few banks that has branches in both the 台大 (NTU) and the 中國醫藥大學 (CMU), the latter being down in Taichung where I will be working as a summer intern at one of their museums after my semester at 台大 ends (apparently there's a branch in New York City too!).

Since my Tuesdays are pretty free (with one class in the morning from 8:10 am to 10:00 am and one class at 6:30 pm to 9:15 pm,) I had plenty of time in between to spare. And although there is a break between periods, when I have an eight o'clock class I prefer to wait until after class to eat breakfast (as I usually have food in my room).

On Tuesday, I decided to go to 小小福--the commissary behind my classroom building--for breakfast instead of eating 饅頭--mantous--in my room all the time. So after a hearty breakfast (of 花生土司--peanut toast--and 鐵觀音奶茶--Tie Guanyin milk tea) I decided to stroll around for a bit seeing as the weather was quite nice. And then I thought, wait a sec, the bank is around here, I should try to find it and proceeded to do just that. I found it with relative ease and curiosity satiated I fully intended on going back to my dorm, then thought, well why don't I check it out? So, feeling a bit adventurous I decided to go in (mind you, to open a bank account, you need your ARC and your passport, the latter of which was back in my dorm room).

I went in, not with the purpose of opening a bank account, but to see if there was anyone in there who spoke English or if I would have to come back with someone who spoke Mandarin. Luckily, there was someone in there who spoke English and she confirmed what I already knew: that I needed my passport and ARC to open a bank account. Oh yes, and you also need to make an initial NT$1000 deposit, which seems to be the case with most banks, from what I've read.

Image courtesy of life.ntu.edu.tw/

Although I was pretty much free for the next four, five hours that the bank would be open, I figured that I would just go back a different day. A mere two-and-a-half hours later however found me making my way back to campus, passport and ARC in bag to open a bank account.

Apparently, when a U.S. citizen opens a bank account in Taiwan (or perhaps just at Hua Nan bank?), the Taiwanese bank is required to let the U.S. government know, which meant that I also had to fill out one of those U.S. tax forms. Since I wasn't filling it out for employment purposes, I only had to fill out the portions asking for my name, home address (in the U.S.), and my social security number. Unfortunately, I never memorized my whole social security number, and told them as much, to which I was told that perhaps I should come back when I had it. Disheartened, I had no choice but to trudge back to my dorm, trying to remember the darn number all the while. Three different number combinations later, I finally hit what I thought might be the correct one, but I wasn't sure.

Hence my third trip back to the bank. By this point, I was pretty frustrated, and tired of all the trekking back and forth. Granted it was only about a 15-20 minute walk from my dorm to the bank, but when you have to make that trip three times--it's not fun.

Luckily, I had everything I needed that time, and all I had to do was fill out some forms while the bank workers processed the forms and made copies of my ARC and passport. They asked me if I wanted a bank card or a debit card, the difference being that a bank card only allows you to withdraw money from an ATM, while a debit card allows for online purchases. I went for the debit card.

Then asked me if I wanted certain features of the card such as a pin (yes), whether I wanted to use my card internationally to withdraw money (I said no, though in retrospect I should have said yes) (I can still use my card internationally though), whether I wanted to use it at other branches throughout Taiwan and not just the one on campus (definitely), and whether I wanted to use their online banking site (yes). Then they had me fill out a questionnaire about safe online banking, choose a pin, and whatnot.

Afterwards, I was given my card and balance book, and another bank employee took me out to the ATM to show me how to use the card for the first time, which required changing the default pin, and to set up my online banking account. It seemed he didn't know much English because he asked (in Chinese) if I could speak Chinese and when I told him, “一點點 (a little bit)” he proceeded to speak to me mainly in Chinese. Surprisingly I understood a good amount of what he was telling me (he was probably using simplistic language so that I'd understand).

Because I'm too lazy to take a picture of my card, I found this picture courtesy of Google Images

All this took quite a good while and by the time I was done, the bank had closed. I admit, it was a bit of a nerve-wracking process just because I was nervous about going by myself, plus the limited English of most of the staff (the one who could speak English had other business to tend to at times so wasn't standing there translating all the time), but they were still helpful and didn't treat me rudely just because I couldn't speak Chinese (although I had a feeling they were surprised and maybe skeptical when the last employee was speaking to me in Chinese). It was a relief to get it all done and over with and while it was not a very complex process and while there was someone there who spoke English, if you plan on opening a bank account in Taiwan, I would recommend going with someone who's fluent in Mandarin, just to make things easier for yourself.

Black circle - dorms; red circle - main entrance; yellow circle - bank
Making that trek from black to red to yellow and back thrice? Not fun

Everyday Chinese 

• 銀行 (Yínháng) - Bank
• 帳戶 (Zhànghù) - Account
• 開戶 (Kāihù) - Open an account
• 金融卡 (Jīnróng kǎ) - Debit card
• 信用卡 (Xìnyòng kǎ) - Credit card
• 我想開(銀行帳)戶 (Wǒ xiǎng kāi (yínháng zhàng) hù) - I would like to open a bank account