Taiwan's Foreigner Friendly Government
So, I went in to get my new IC ATM card, and they told me some new rules are in effect for us foreigners:
If you have less than a year left on your ARC, you cannot use your Taiwan ATM card to make withdrawls outside of Taiwan.
Personally, I really appreciate Taiwan's government deciding when I can and cannot withdraw my own money.
Consider a young Canadianer who has been in Taiwan for 11 months out of a 1 year contract and has to return to Canada for a family emergency...I hope she remembers to cash out her account before she leaves!
I am also touched that they thoughfully change these rules at whim without consulting anyone in the foreign community. I can only imagine what will next, so I think I will be moving any spare cash I have out of this country.
4 comments:
Hi Aaron - welcome back!
First - I think multi-year arc holders are in the super-minority - I don't know anyone who has one - so this rule is for everyone starting the second you get an arc!
Second - how in the world is the arc info gonna be collated with the banking stuff? Atm's all have to be recalibrated every time the money is changed... that doesn't happen in a timely fashion at my bank...
there are already a bunch of laws regarding leaving Taiwan that are either unenforceable or unenforced, like showing tax papers, turning in yr arc...
It seems so ridiculous as to be erroneous - maybe the guy at yr bank is wrong?
-sandy
I have had 2 Taiwanese people check with the bank...everyone came back with different explanations..some said you would be okay until your ARC expired...so I am really confused now.
I guess the real test will be to attempt to use an ATM overseas.
BTW, my new card has a 6 digit for Taiwan and 4 digit for overseas...weird.
Sounds like "Sinopac".
This is absolutely NOT true!
I've used 5 different bank ATMs for the past 14 years and only Sinopac has claimed this (and they eventually caved in under pressure).
Among the dozen different excuses they've give me (and my colleagues) over the last 5 years (yes, 5 years!), the one that sounds the most reasonable is that they would need to change some programming to their system to take into account a foreigners different ID (ARC) numbers and they don't want to bother!
Wow, something that actual sounds reasonably truthful!
ICBC. The reason they now state is due to Taiwan not having a free market for foreign currency (yes, you can trade it but it's actually controlled...)
So, if this is not a new rule, then maybe it is a rule that is never enforced...
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