Hi,
Since I moved into a new country (Taiwan) I have to pay the rent for my new apartment (1 month rent + 2 months deposit), approximately 1700€. I realized that it would be much easier for me to use my Revolut card and make a transfer instead of withdrawing tons of cash. However, I didn’t see TWD (taiwanese dollars) as a supported currency for bank transfers.
Is it possible to transfer money to a taiwanese bank account with Revolut as of today? Since the destination account is in TWD and I’m sending euros, I guess there’ll be some conversion fee on the side of the taiwanese bank? And is there a limit to how much I can top up on my Revolut card and transfer that would prevent me from topping up 1700€ and then transferring them?
And do you have an idea of how long it can take for the transfer to be effective? Several days maybe?
I’ll reply to my own questions because I’ve got an answer from Revolut:
The transfer is possible, and can take 1-2 working days. I’ve started the transfer now (Wednesday) and it says it’s expected to be completed on Friday.
I was kinda wondering which currency you finally received in Taiwan. Did you sent these EUR to your bank in Taiwan and arrived as EUR and then converted to TWD when needed (with charges from Taiwanese Banks) or they appeared TWD (without Taiwan bank fee) after you sent these EUR via Revolut?
Hi, sorry but I can’t reply to you now because when doing the transfer I made a mistake when entering the recipient’s name, so the destination bank rejected the transfer and I’m still waiting for my money to come back. Not Revolut’s fault though, I just mistyped the name of the beneficiary. If I have better information on your question I’ll tell you.
But I think the destination bank will charge a fee and convert with their rates, as far as I know.
Hi, to give you more information, after my transfer failed (due to my own error) the Taiwanese bank took a (crazy) fee of 35€ approximately for the transfer cancelling, and there was no fee on Revolut side. I don’t know if such a fee was only for transfer cancelling or if there are similar fees for any transfers. Anyway, I won’t try transferring anything again to Taiwan.
If you do try transferring some money, I’d be interested to know what fees you’ll pay on the receiving side.
hey Pandamatt did you find any better way to do the transfers to a Taiwanese bank? I’m asking this because I’m passing for the exactly same process you did. I’m moving to Taiwan and I don’t want to withdrawal a lot of money just to pay the 3 months rent. Thanks.
I was in the same situation as the original poster and I successfully transferred money from my Revolut accout to my Taiwanese bank account. Here is how it went.
I first opened a bank account in Taiwan. I went to the Post Office bank, because other banks didn’t let me open a bank account without a proof of employment or an ARC card. It’s actually possible to open a bank account as a tourist (visa-exempt) since the only documents required are your passport and your ROC ID number paper sheet (very easy to get). Just be convincing. Students or working-holiday visa holders do not have an ARC card, yet they need a bank account and can open one.
After opening the account, I asked for my SWIFT number and they gave me detailed instructions about each information required for the transfer (SWIFT number, account number, bank address, etc.) I confirmed each of them to be sure. I asked them about handling fees for receiving a SWIFT transfer, and after thorough research (they are not used to this kind of questions) they told me NTD200. A Taiwanese friend who called them was told NTD300. Whatever.
I sent EUR700 to my Taiwanese bank account and it arrived on the expected day. The amount of NTD23622 was directly credited to my Taiwanese account. On that day, Revolut’s EUR/NTD rate varied from 34.8269 to 34.9529. Same values on the previous day. So either the handling fee was higher (about NTD800), or they used a different rate, or both. At any rate, if I had withdrawn NTD23622 from an ATM using my Revolut card on that day, it would have costed me a maximum of 23622÷34.82×1.02 = 691.97 euros, so the SWIFT transfer was more expensive eventually.
I received a remittance exchange memo from my Taiwanese bank with detailed information about the transfer. It turns out they received only EUR687.50 and used a conversion rate of 34.6500 and charged a handling fee of NTD200. Which means EUR12.50 have been taken away somewhere. I suspect and an intermediary bank. But the memo states the remitting bank is Revolut. Also note that their conversion rate is about 0.8% lower than Revolut’s.
Let’s do some math. Let’s say that the swift transfer cost is (ntd+200)/(r*0.994)+12.5. (I assume a linear relation between Revolut’s rate and my Taiwanese bank’s rate). Revolut’s cost by ATM withdrawal is (ntd/r-200)*1.02+200 with the free plan. This means the swift transfer is cheaper if you need to withdraw more than NTD55589.
I want to ask for more details on this. Which numbers did you put into which boxes in the Revolut app for transfer to Taiwan?
I put the Chunghwa Post Co account number in the beneficiary, and put my own name in the comment (note), as well as my account number. seems shady tho.
I also tired with my own name and account number in those fields but it was returned to me, and there was no way to put any information about the bank.
This is because the swift code is just the one of the intermediary bank of New York Mellon.
When I opened my bank account in Taipei, I asked the clerk for relevant account information to make international bank transfer. I was given a paper called 外匯匯入匯款填寫說明 (Inward Remittance Instruction) with precise details and tips, including swift code and account number. About the account number, I had to put 700 followed by my 14-digit local account number, making it 17-digit long. The paper also included swift codes of intermediary banks I was explicitly told not to use.
So in the Revolut app, I tapped “Add a bank recipient” and filled the Account details form:
Country of recipient’s bank: Taiwan
Currency: Euro (this is the main currency of my Revolut account)
Account number: that 17-digit long account number
BIC / SWIFT: the code I was given (SINOTWTP)
First and middle name: my first name
Last name(s): my last name
I tapped “Save recipient”, and then sent money to that new recipient. That’s all.
I transferred GBP to a Taiwanese bank account last week via Revolut. Banks in Taiwan accept major foreign currency transactions. If you have a foreign currency account in a Taiwanese bank, you can wait for a better rate and exchange it. Banks in Taiwan usually charge a handling fee of around 350-400 NTD per foreign transaction. Revolut will tell you how much handling fee the local bank has taken and what time the money has been credited to the bank account.
seems shady tho. 