Getting set up - sim, banking, credit card

With the 21 days of quarantine and self-health management over it was time to get set up as a local. This is when life got really interesting.

First, when I applied for my gold card I did not have an address, and as such my gold card was issued without a Taiwan address on it. I never thought this would be an issue until I went to try to set things up. 

I should provide a bit of clarification on this. I chose to live in Banqiao New Taipei for several reasons, first it is a full local experience, and secondly the rents are cheaper. There are areas designed more for foreigners such as Da'an district, Xinyi district, Tainmu district, and Beitou district to name a few. You will find it much easier to survive in English and be self-sufficient in these type of areas. Being in Banqiao means that most barely speak English, and landlords are mostly not open to renting to foreigners for a variety of reasons. As previously mentioned my lease was entered into by a Taiwanese friend of mine and as such the name on the lease was his.

Step one was to try to update my gold card to include my address. For whatever reason two separate requests were created and as a result this process got stuck in limbo. I am not certain how they verified my address as typically need to have a lease in your own name, but it worked in my case. Can't comment for others. As the process of getting a new card with my address on in was stuck in limbo, I tried going to the immigration office to sort this out in person, however, I was informed this can only be done online, and as such I wasted 1.5 hours there. I contacted the gold card office and they were extremely helpful. Got the application piece sorted the same day. What I had to do was actually delete both of the applications created and start all over again. They are unable to correct these errors from the backside.

As it was going to take a considerable amount of time to get a new card based on the above, at the end of the quarantine I had to get everything set up with my existing card which had no address on it, and the fun began.

First stop on what I will call day one was at the bank. I chose HSBC, as I opened HSBC accounts in Canada prior to leaving to simplify viewing all of my accounts and transferring money between them. Taiwan is one out of only three countries in the world where one must open an account in person. It is the first time I was unable to use HSBC's international banking centre to open an account prior to arrival.

There is one thing someone should know about banking in Taiwan. Banks are only open Monday to Friday 9 am - 3:30 pm. I have also not come across any cash exchange places.  Bank of Taiwan operates currency exchange ATMs but they will only exchange USD, HKD, JPY and CNY.

I get to HSBC, where there was only one person that spoke English, luckily and unluckily for me she had spend numerous years in Vancouver Canada. Here come the issues:

• Visit #1 my gold card has no address on it. For them to use an address I provide them with would take 1-2 weeks for them to verify. After a bit of complaining they offered to use my Canadian address based on my Canadian driver's license. It was going to take them 1-2 days to verify this. I kept explaining to them that I had accounts in Canada with HSBC and they can simply contact the bank there for everything, but they said they couldn't.
• Visit #2 - the bank verified all of the information so I was expecting to show up to just sign paperwork. Wrong. They cannot fill the paperwork in for you, so you must fill it in yourself. Note that on the first day they had to run checks on everything no the second visit they somehow trust me. I show up two days later at the bank as arranged with them using my Canadian address to open the account. I filled in the forms at home and brought them with me. I sign the forms as I do in Canada, and as there were multiple places to sign my signature wasn't perfectly identical. It was just the slightest off, but this caused all kinds of issues. At the end they wanted me to just type my name as I write it and use it as my signature. This method works for everything so turned out for the best. More to come on the signature issue so stay tuned.
• Visit #3 - I came to pick up my bank card and change the pin at the branch. I brought my Canadian cash with me at the same time. I should mention that when they opened my NTD account they also opened a CAD and USD accounts for me as well here. I show my ID get my card, and tell them I need to deposit my cash. They walk me over to the counter and tell me I will need to show them my passport and ARC, even though they literally looked at those documents before handing me my card. I go to the counter show my passport and ARC, and hand them my cash to which they tell me they can't accept Canadian cash. Please do not bring your Canadian cash with you, it's pretty useless here. It was off to the bank of Taiwan to try to exchange my Canadian cash, but the branch across the street from HSBC did not accept Canadian cash so it was off to another Bank of Taiwan branch.

For whatever reason the banks in Taiwan do not offer joint accounts. Have not been able to figure out why this is, or if there are ways around it.

Getting a sim card was a bit simpler. Went to Chunghwa mobile with my Taiwanese friend. No one there spoke English. They agreed to provide me with a sim and a plan with my gold card with no address on it. This was the only thing that was straight forward. They did call me to come in to the store with my new gold card that had the address on it once I received it. I couldn't go to any other location though, so had to make the trek back to the store I got the sim card from. A new issue came up. As a foreigner I cannot use their online system to view my bills or make payments. This means I need to receive my bills by mail, and pay either using online banking or through convenience stores. Convenience stores only take payments using cash. Taiwan is definitely a cash country.

One thing to note, that unlike in Canada where all plans include unlimited talk and texting, and the only options relate to data, in Taiwan it's the opposite. All plans offer unlimited data, and need to simply pick the speed. Talking and texting are addons. That said, almost everything in Taiwan is done over Whatsapp and Line.

I should mention the process for picking up my new gold card. Once it was ready I got an email which had me log onto the online system to print off a payment voucher, even though I did not submit a payment. I chose to pick it up at the immigration office in Zhongzheng district. This was really easy as well. Once you go through the front doors, get your temperature checked and use hand sanitizer, just need to go to the desks on the left. I gave them my passport, the proof of payment and existing gold card, and they gave me the new gold card. In and out in under 5 minutes.

Now to getting a credit card. Once I got my new gold card it was back to the bank for visit #4 for them to update my account to the new card and address. I was sure this would be a quick 5 minute exercise but it wasn't. Back through a verification process, and signing documents. Banking is a lot of fun here. While I was there I thought I should apply for the HSBC MasterCard, after all I have accounts with them in Canada and now Taiwan and already had an HSBC MasterCard from Canada. But no, I would have to provide them with statements showing income, balances etc. I decided that I cannot be bothered to do this, and so I decided to try my luck getting the Cathay Costco card as I am a Costco member and others said it was straight forward. Here’s how this went:

• Visit #1 to Costco - was when I had my gold card without an address on it and didn't have my HSBC account yet so they wouldn't open it for me. I was told I needed to have a minimum of $20,000 NTD  in my Taiwan accounts
• Visit #2 to Costco - I had my new card with address on it, had $17,000 in my NTD account, and money in my Taiwan CDN dollar account. They don't consider funds held in a foreign denominated account even if it's in Taiwan as counting towards the minimum required. It was after banking hours so I couldn't transfer money from the CDN dollar account to the NTD account.
• I decided to visit a Cathay bank by my home. There was a person there that spoke broken English and did not quite understand what I was trying to do. He got a woman that speaks English to deal with me but I had to wait nearly 30 minutes before she came over, and he gave her the wrong information. After the wait I decided not to spend any additional time there so they gave me the application and I left.
• Visit #3 to Costco - Had my new gold card, over $20,000 NTD in the account and my Costco card. Took 5 minutes and I was done. The told me I would receive my card in the mail within two weeks. This is where I get back to the signature. They insisted I sign my name as I type it as well. So just need to write your name as your signature everywhere. Works really well.
• Two weeks went by with no phone call, no email and no card. So I thought I should follow up with them, and the results were as follows:
• phone call #1 - they tell me I was rejected. They inform me that the reason I was rejected is that the bank slip with the balance does not show my name and full account number on it. They tell me that I need to send them something from the bank that has my full account number on it unblocked and my name. With HSBC no such thing exists. So I email them a printout from my online banking which has the full account number on it, and my bank statement which has my name on it and my blocked account number. They tell me they will let me know when they receive it.
• phone call #2 - they call me two days later to let me know they received my email and have forwarded them on to their superiors (these are the magical people of banking in Taiwan because you cannot reach them directly). They tell me it will take their superiors 3-5 days to review the documents
• phone call #3 - I get a call 3 days after the second call, where they asked me my address, phone number, date of birth, who I bank with, and what I do for work in Taiwan. These were not identity verification questions even though they appear as such. Apparently, they wanted to confirm the information I had placed on the application was correct. I told them that I have my own business in Canada and have no Taiwanese income. This was all the same information I had provided on the application. Again I am told they will pass the answers to their superiors and it will take 3-5 days to review
• phone call #4 - 2 days after call #3, they called to tell me I have been rejected again. I asked why, they told me it is because I don't have any Taiwanese income and/or a credit score. I did the sensible thing and asked how this was news to them seeing as they knew this from the original application, and no answer.

Me trying to get a Taiwanese credit card is a bust with lots of time wasted. As such I have decided to not even bother again. The system just isn't designed for foreigners with income sources outside of the country. Gold card or no gold card apparently just too big of a credit risk. Don't listen to others, just having $20,000 TND in your account will not get you a Costco credit card.

The places I used are as follows:

HSBC - No. 160之5, Section 1, Zhongshan Road, Banqiao District, New Taipei City, 220
Bank of Taiwan across the street - lower level of New Taipei City Government building - there's an exchange ATM and a post office here as well

Bank of Taiwan that exchanged Canadian dollars - No. 21號, Fuzhong Road, Banqiao District, New Taipei City, 220, the exchange desks are on the third floor and no one speaks English here

Costco - No. 347號, Section 2, Zhongshan Road, Zhonghe District, New Taipei City, 235

Cathay Pacific Bank - No. 260號, Chongqing Road, Banqiao District, New Taipei City, 220