Revolut in China

Is there anyone use revolut in China? How’s the exchange rate and cash withdraw fee?

Hi taonysun, I’m going to China in October and would also like to use my revolut if possible.

Any advice welcome.

Thanks

Hi

I’ve used in China, had some issues at first in entering the wrong pin info. The ATM screen continues regardless of if you enter the right or wrong pin code, so I didn’t realise I was entering the wrong pin.

Also certain banks seem more reliable than others. BOC worked 100% of the time, ICBC worked most of the time, and ABC rarely worked.

So generally try to find a BOC cash point

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How’s the exchange rate?

Hello,

I just come back from China two weeks ago and my Revolut card worked very well. I didn’t tried directly in an ATM, but it’s work with Uber or in shop without any problem.

Every time you spend money, they ask you if you want to be charged in CNY or GBP, just answer CNY and you will get the interbank change rate from Reolut.

The only point I didn’t knew is that if you have to make a bail (guarantee ? not sur for the word in english) for an hotel or a car rental, they will directly make a withdrawal on your account (pending, but your money is out), and next when the hotel canceled my bail, I had to wait 5 more days to have my money back on my account (normally it’s immediately on a credit card, but not on a prepaid card).

Revolut support told me that a pending transacting will be automatically canceled after 10 days.

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Oh yes, In China not every ATM have the same keyboard, take care of that. It can be 1234… or 9876…

It is really interesting. I have never noticed that.

I would keep in mind that Unionpay is the dominant plastic money there and if you travel outside of the usual tourist areas (even if it just into a different part of a town) Mastercard, Visa and AmEx are not that useful anymore.

Last 3 weeks I was visiting several cities in China, including Hohhot, Changzhou, Dongtai, Beijing… I carried a big amount of physical cash in Euros, because I was worried I could not use Revolut cards on their ATMs.

And… I was wrong!

In every city, there are many bank offices and there is always at least one ATM nearby. I’ve used China Construction Bank and Bank of China ATMs and there were no fee on any of my transactions. For 100 EUR, I’ve got 782 RMB while my friends got 755 RMB for the same amount when they were exchanging Euros in the bank. Moreover, they were waiting sometimes for more than 45 minutes to pass all checks, bring their passports, be with some other Chinese person, answer to some questions and so on.

Definitely worth carrying Revolut card with you.

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Bank of China is usually the best option for travellers, in my experience.

I have used it extensively in China.

Some places take foreign cards, usually the big retailers such as Sundan or shopping malls. Small shops (think convenience stores, gas stations etc) don’t usually accept it, but you can always try.

You can link your Revolut card with WeChat Pay and it works great with many merchants such as JD.com (online department store) and E-le (food delivery app). It does not work with all merchants though.

I withdrew money at ATM’s a couple times. The exchange rate is great (same as Google) but only within your plan’s limit. Exceed the limit and Revolut starts charging a percentage fee and the rate becomes very bad.

So my advice for China travelers is:

  1. Withdraw some cash from your Revolut card but only within your plan’s limit. If you exceed it the percentage fees are considerable.

  2. Try and pay with your Revolut card whenever possible, not only that doesn’t have limits nor percentages fees, but if you have the metal plan you will get a 1% cash back on all your purchases, not bad =). Also bring your passport or at least a copy (keep it in your wallet) as more and more merchants have started asking for it when taking a foreign card.

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