Best way to send money to China, just been banned by WU after 12 years usage...

[indielad]

I got banned from WU this week afer 12 happy years sending money to China via WU. Probably because I send so much money out and new EU security regulations. My supplier suggested bank transfer. I use Halifax. Is it a reliable way to send money over?

[slokor]

You can try Perfectmoney as well.

[Pandoras_box]

Originally Posted by indielad

I got banned from WU this week afer 12 happy years sending money to China via WU. Probably because I send so much money out and new EU security regulations. My supplier suggested bank transfer. I use Halifax. Is it a reliable way to send money over?

If you're a business, you have nothing to worry about as you can show cause.

Yes, Halifax is fine. I've used severally to it to purchase stock from Asia with no problem at all.
Note that you'd have soft ML footprints on your credit file so make sure your taxes are fine.
Ideally, you should be using a business account for that.

[phaz0rz]

I got banned years ago. I have 3 businesses and they didn't care. We were able to get through ~10 more transfers once they started holding all of them until we called in. They had me email incorporation docs and several other things, and they still ended up banning me because "they thought I was getting scammed".

For us it's been 100% wire transfer since then. Turns out it's cheaper than 3rd party remitters anyway.

[997turbo]

ectually paypal is a good way to do this now
ask your supplier to open up a Chinese business paypal ,its a 1 way receiving only account,they allow big amount to get in with Chinese paypal,they won't limit it if your supplier is a legit company.pretty strong to receive money throu.

[phaz0rz]

Originally Posted by 997turbo

ectually paypal is a good way to do this now
ask your supplier to open up a Chinese business paypal ,its a 1 way receiving only account,they allow big amount to get in with Chinese paypal,they won't limit it if your supplier is a legit company.pretty strong to receive money throu.

4-5% fee is a deal breaker for me, but you have a good point.

[burbur]

transferwise

[123]

Try transferwise, they've been great

[SaiJin]

Originally Posted by indielad

I got banned from WU this week afer 12 happy years sending money to China via WU. Probably because I send so much money out and new EU security regulations. My supplier suggested bank transfer. I use Halifax. Is it a reliable way to send money over?

WU did this?? That's rare. usually money gram is the worst.
What was their reasoning??

[phaz0rz]

WU is infamous for banning people. WU isn't supposed to be used for commercial transactions so they ban you once it becomes clear you're using them for those.

[Play]

Originally Posted by indielad

I got banned from WU this week afer 12 happy years sending money to China via WU. Probably because I send so much money out and new EU security regulations. My supplier suggested bank transfer. I use Halifax. Is it a reliable way to send money over?

Just use another money transfer service such as transferwise or moneygram.

Its not the end of the world.

[GreenBean]

Transferwise is fine.

Using your bank business account can work too.

[Ebayno]

Dont think transferwise allow to send money in usd in China or HK

[indielad]

As an update, I just tried a bank transfer, it's far from ideal. I was offered the same exchange rate as Western Union, but it took 4 working days (4 days of lost trade), I was charged £10 by my bank, then another £35 by the Chinese bank to receive it.

To be honest the £/$ excahnge rate is so terrible I don't know whther the business is worthwhile to do anymore. There's more regulation at the ports and WHen I first started VAT was 15% but the Tories raised it to 20%, you've got to expect some exchange rate variance, but the pound has been in freefall for years now, that's great for exporters, but not so much for importers trading in dollars.

[phaz0rz]

It's weird that your supplier charged you the receiving fee they had to pay. I've never heard of it, so I guess my supplier has been handling that part for me all this time.

I guess I have an advantage since my native currency is USD and that's what all the Chinese suppliers seem to prefer. I save $40-70 on each payment using wire's instead of WU, because with WU, I always kept each transfer under $3k so I'd have to send 3 or 4 for every order, with a fee of $27 each time. International wires in the US are ~$45.

"4 working days" is also odd. Are you sure the delay wasn't caused by the holiday going on in China right now? We sent a wire last week that we are still waiting on the supplier to confirm receipt of. I'm assuming that's because of their holiday though, because they usually receive our wires the next business day.

Anyway, it sucks to hear about the currency conversion setback. I don't think wire's usually take 4 days though, unless it's different in the UK compared to USA.

[indielad]

Originally Posted by phaz0rz

I guess I have an advantage since my native currency is USD and that's what all the Chinese suppliers seem to prefer. I save $40-70 on each payment using wire's instead of WU, because with WU, I always kept each transfer under $3k so I'd have to send 3 or 4 for every order, with a fee of $27 each time. International wires in the US are ~$45.

"4 working days" is also odd. Are you sure the delay wasn't caused by the holiday going on in China right now? We sent a wire last week that we are still waiting on the supplier to confirm receipt of. I'm assuming that's because of their holiday though, because they usually receive our wires the next business day.

Anyway, it sucks to hear about the currency conversion setback. I don't think wire's usually take 4 days though, unless it's different in the UK compared to USA.

Oh sure it would be helpful if my supplier would trade in pounds. Mind you, when I first started it was 2$ to a £1 and i made a lot more money then so it can work either way. There's other headwinds though, VAT being,raised, and more red tape. I think the 4 working days might bebecause it was my first transaction which always seems to get delayed. My supplier is quite hardfaced about fees, but seems to be flexible on price, so swings and roundabouts I guess. I might try moneygram next time.

Anyone looking to send money to china for them to receive in USD, Transferwise is fsr by the BEST option.

Real time exchange rates, waaay cheaper than bank transfers, and takes 24 hours to reach their bank.

The only issue is if your supplier isn't trustworthy, there's no option to claim your money back. I was burnt recently, sent 1k GBP and the supplier had personal issues and stopped responding and I've lost the money.

[burbur]

cheapest way is revolut since they go by official rate. some chinese have problems to get money from abroad. xendpay works best in that case since it makes a local transfer to the recipient