Can I transfer money from Chinese visa debit card to my monzo card in the UK

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1

Hi, everyone!

I am an international student studying in the UK, and I only have a Monzo bank account here as my local bank account. I want to top up some money on my card, but the cash limitation is 1000 pounds. So I want to transfer some money from my visa debit account create in China to my current Monzo account, but I am not sure whether it will be successful. Could you kindly tell me if it works? Also, could you kindly tell me if there are some more ways to top up some more money to my account please?

Thank you so much!

2

I believe you will need to use Transferwise to do this.

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3

From a Chinese bank you don’t want to use TransferWise.

You’d be better off opening an account with a larger bank as Monzo doesn’t work very well with international transfers currently (HSBC, Barclays etc.)

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Thank you!

5

HSBC is particularly easy as they don’t charge anything for global transfers if you also hold an account in China but you’d have to wait until next time you’re back unless you have one already. Alipay international transfer works okay too but not with Monzo.

After it’s in the UK you can instantly transfer money to your Monzo account for more convenient spending.

6

Is there a reason you say this? Does TransferWise not support sending from Chinese bank accounts? Seems it would be a lot easier if it works.

7

I was going to ask the same. Isn’t it what Monzo recommend too?

8

It’s simply not supported to send any currency from China via TransferWise as they don’t comply with local regulations.

Options are to use a large bank with global presence (notably HSBC as it’s fee-free), Alipay etc. but all of these would require an account with a more established (in this context) bank and not the likes of Monzo, Starling, N26 etc.

One other option OP has is to use PayPal China to send money to a UK PayPal account. It’s very simple to do but you’ll be charged quite a lot for the convenience.

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9

You can use Monzo.me to pay yourself using your Chinese card. Note that Monzo will charge your card in GBP so you may incur foreign transaction fees on your Chinese account.

10

As someone with a few different Chinese bank accounts, thankfully the only times you’re charged for a foreign transaction are usually if the transaction occurs in a currency the card doesn’t support (due to local regulations, Visa cards in China are all denominated in one or more foreign currencies, not local currency). For example, my Bank of Beijing Visa debit card only charges me 1%, and only if I perform a transaction not in US dollars (the one currency that card supports), and my ICBC Visa charges me nothing if I perform transactions in one of the currencies the card supports (USD, CAD, JPY, HKD, SGD, GBP, EUR, CHF, AUD, NZD), but posts charges in all other currencies converted to USD (also with no fee).

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11

I’m not sure whether it’s a restriction on Monzo’s end but my HSBC MasterCard (CNY/USD dual currency) wouldn’t go through on this. Just tried it now as it would’ve been very convenient indeed but my account is closed so obviously my link no longer works.

I’d be very interested to know if this works but I don’t have my own Monzo account to try with. Anyone want to give me their Monzo.me link to try sending you a small amount?

12

There’s a random Monzo.me link on this post if you want to give it a try (found on Google, no affiliation): http://kevinmccormick.co.uk/bbcsweepo/payment.php

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