Paying American bills with Taiwanese Bank Account?

[Lili]

My amount of USD is quickly disappearing after the monthly online bills are paid.
Can I pay my American bills (student loan, credit card) using my Fubon bank or something?

This is with the idea that I won't have to transfer any currency between bank accounts and can avoid the bank fees...?

[tommy525]

You hv a checking account in the USA yes? You can access your banking online?

Send yourself US dollars from TAiwan to your US account via telex transfer from a Taiwan bank.

Now you have US dollars available to pay bills.

I don't think the Taiwanese banks have a facility where you can pay US bills without transfer fees, etc. I may be wrong tho.

[CraigTPE]

With only one exception that I know of: No.

In my own personal experience, and what I've gathered from the dozens of Forumosa threads on this subject, getting money from one country to another is a wire transfer, which costs money. The only exception I've heard of is if you have a huge pile of money in HSBC, they make the process pretty seamless and absorb the fees, making it look like it's the same as online bill pay. You can also read on threads here of people saying they figured out a way to use PayPal to do it, which presumably costs less than a wire transfer. You could also get an ATM card for your account here to someone you trust in the US to withdraw money there and pay your bills, also less expensive than wire transfers.

[Lili]

With only one exception that I know of: No.

In my own personal experience, and what I've gathered from the dozens of Forumosa threads on this subject, getting money from one country to another is a wire transfer, which costs money. The only exception I've heard of is if you have a huge pile of money in HSBC, they make the process pretty seamless and absorb the fees, making it look like it's the same as online bill pay. You can also read on threads here of people saying they figured out a way to use PayPal to do it, which presumably costs less than a wire transfer. You could also get an ATM card for your account here to someone you trust in the US to withdraw money there and pay your bills, also less expensive than wire transfers.

Yea I saw those :/ But I was wondering about directly paying my bills with my TWN card.
I'm gonna try it to see what happens, once I can find my Taiwanese checking account number :/

[CraigTPE]

You will be a pioneer. If you find a way to pay US bills with an account in Taiwan, you will have gone where no man or woman has been able to go before, at least as recorded on this Forum.

[milkalex]

can't you pay with a credit card like in Ireland and Australia? They don't even care what country your cc is from. You might have to pay a fee (like 1% or so) though

[CraigTPE]

can't you pay with a credit card like in Ireland and Australia? They don't even care what country your cc is from. You might have to pay a fee (like 1% or so) though

Probably, but good luck getting a credit card in Taiwan. Also, I think most Visa cards charge closer to 3-4% (depending on the card and bank) for overseas charges.

That being said, if your debit card is activated for foreign transactions, you might be able to use it.

[CraigTPE]

Any update, Lili?

[llary]

You cannot do US bill pay from a foreign account, the routing systems are completely incompatible.

[mabagal]

Has anyone tried this with 2 of your own Paypal accounts? Basically just pay for a service from yourself over Paypal and then ship it to your bank on the US end to do the billpay. I haven't calculated the fees to see if this would work better than credit card or a wire, but it would definitely be more convenient than a wire being able to do all this from your phone or PC and would provide a convenient way to move funds back and forth.