Original link: https://www.blueskyxn.com/202208/6305.html
foreword
How to obtain the real exchange rate is the most common problem between different currencies when making cross-border payments and transfers. This article introduces multiple channels and an analysis of their advantages and disadvantages to provide a comprehensive introduction to how consumers should obtain the real exchange rate.
First of all, to calculate the exchange rate, you need to know who your base currency (hereinafter referred to as Base) is. The base currency refers to the currency that you finally enter into the account and that you actually pay, which can also be understood as the “consumer’s own currency”. currency”.
For example the following example
- Use a USD credit card issued by Bank of America to spend 1,000 yuan in CNY in mainland China -> Base USD in the United States
- Use CNY single-currency UnionPay credit card issued by Bank of China to spend 1,000 USD in USD via PayPal at a US merchant -> Base China’s CNY
- Use the dual-standard dual-currency UnionPay+V/M credit card issued by Bank of China to spend USD 1,000 in USD through PayPal at a US merchant -> Base China’s CNY (return to RMB after automatic conversion) or China’s USD (manual foreign exchange purchase and repayment) )
- Use the V/M single currency credit card issued by Bank of China to spend 1,000 USD in USD through PayPal at a US merchant -> same as item 3 above
Card organization exchange rate or bank exchange rate
At present, it is not clear whether banks in mainland China or overseas use the bank’s own exchange rate or the card organization’s exchange rate, especially many who use their own exchange rates do not disclose the exchange rates. Of course, the premise of using the card organization exchange rate is that the funds are processed through the card organization. If it is a cross-border transfer method such as wire transfer and PayPal, it has nothing to do with the card organization exchange rate.
Generally speaking, for UnionPay cards issued in mainland China, the priority card organization exchange rate (that is, the UnionPay exchange rate, I don’t know if there are any counter-examples), while VISA and MasterCard generally use the priority bank exchange rate . JCB and AE cards are currently uncertain, and they may also be the same. The bank exchange rate takes precedence. [This article has not been confirmed and is only for personal understanding, please refer to the actual situation]
Generally speaking, for cards issued overseas, such as the United States, the priority card organizes the exchange rate, but if the bank has foreign exchange-related business, or an independent FX system, it may use its own exchange rate in transactions (for example, Revolut has its own FX system and It also provides VM two prepaid card binding accounts)
Trusted data source for exchange rates
General data sources can be divided into these categories
- The public exchange rate of the card organization comes from the exchange rate announced by the major card organizations, but the card organizations such as AMEX and Discover do not publish the exchange rate
- The exchange rate published by the bank, from the exchange rate announced by the bank and the official financial administration
- The exchange rate announced by the platform is the exchange rate announced by the financial platform with currency conversion business.
- Market exchange rate, from the transaction price in the P2P market
Of course, there are also platforms such as Kuaiyi Financial Network that aggregate some data.
Card organization public exchange rate
VISA card organization: https://www.visa.cn/travel-with-visa/exchange-rate-calculator.html
Mastercard Organization: https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/personal/get-support/convert-currency.html
UnionPay Card Organization: https://www.unionpayintl.com/cn/rate/
Bank publishes exchange rate
Only some banks are displayed, and some banks do not have foreign exchange business. The region abbreviations in parentheses represent the information found from the official website of the branch in the region. The exchange rate may be different in different regions.
In the case of foreign exchange purchase, remittance and foreign exchange settlement and sale business with foreign standard cards, you need to pay attention to the bank exchange rate.
Bank of China (CN): https://www.boc.cn/sourcedb/whpj/
HSBC Bank (CN): https://www.services.cn-banking.hsbc.com.cn/PublicContent/common/rate/en/exchange-rates.html
China Construction Bank (CN): http://forex1.ccb.com/cn/forex/exchange-quotations.html
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (CN): Industrial and Commercial Bank of China RMB spot foreign exchange rate
Agricultural Bank (CN): https://ewealth.abchina.com/ForeignExchange/ListPrice/
China CITIC Bank (CN): http://www.citicbank.com/common/financialnews/news/201606/t20160608_56604.html
Postal Savings Bank (CN): https://www.psbc.com/cn/common/bjfw/whpjcx/
China Merchants Bank (CN): https://fx.cmbchina.com/hq/
Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (CN): https://www.spdb.com.cn/was5/web/search?channelid=256931
China Guangfa Bank (CN): http://www.cgbchina.com.cn/Info/12154717
Bank of Communications (CN): http://www.bankcomm.com/BankCommSite/shtml/jyjr/cn/7158/7161/8091/list.shtml
Bank of America (US): https://www.bankofamerica.com/foreign-exchange/exchange-rates/
Wells Fargo (US): https://www.wellsfargo.com/foreign-exchange/currency-rates/
East West Bank (CN): https://www.eastwestbank.com.cn/zh/rates/foreign-exchange-rates
ECB Exchange Rate (EU): https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/index.en.html and https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/ euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/eurofxref-graph-usd.en.html
Citibank (CN): https://www.citibank.com.cn/CNGCB/APTC/ASDP/fxrate/flow.action?locale=zh_CN
The platform announces the exchange rate
Google Exchange Rate: https://www.google.com/search?q=USD+CNY
Revolut: https://www.revolut.com/en-US/currency-converter introduction (we use real exchange rates for foreign exchange, real exchange rate refers to our buy-in based on foreign exchange market data sources obtained from a range of different independent sources and selling rate)
Curve Card: https://www.curve.com/fx-calculator/ Introduction (We use the wholesale fixed daily rate provided by Mastercard®)
IBKR, Ouitrust: Unable to check if you are not logged in
WISE: Send https://wise.com/us/pricing/business/send-money Exchange https://wise.com/us/pricing/card-fees
XE: https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/
MoneyGram: https://www.moneygram.com/mgo/us/en/
WeChat exchange rate: You can only use the official API to query, it should also be divided into online and offline exchange rates (generally speaking, online is inferior to offline, generally WeChat is not as good as Alipay exchange rate) You can also use the payment gateways of Stripe/Ouitrust and other platforms to check .
Alipay exchange rate: Alipay searches for “exchange rate conversion” to check the offline exchange rate, and there are also high and low levels according to the membership level (divided into online and offline exchange rates, generally speaking, online is inferior to offline, generally WeChat is not as good as Alipay exchange rate) Online exchange rates are mainly queried through the Stripe gateway. Then the official also gave a web page query, and saw that the offline exchange rate is the same as that of the gold member.
Remitly: https://www.remitly.com/us/en/china
West Union: https://www.westernunion.com/us/en/currency-converter/usd-to-cny-rate.html
XOOM: https://www.xoom.com/china/send-money (PayPal built-in platform)
PayPal: After logging in, visit the currency converter at https://www.paypal.com/myaccount/money/
market exchange rate
When using market exchange rates, please pay attention to Chinese mainland or international laws such as foreign exchange management measures and anti-money laundering laws. In particular, do not falsely purchase or borrow foreign exchange quotas.
Swapsy: https://swapsy.com/ This is a P2P exchange platform in the United States
Binance: Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange that still offers CNY C2C business today. According to relevant laws and regulations, its domain name is not displayed, and the Path is /zh-CN/trade/sell/USDT
Pexpay: This is a vest launched by Binance specifically for C2C business at the end of 2021. According to relevant laws and regulations, its domain name is not displayed, and the Path is /zh-CN/trade/sell
Okx: Ouyi is also a cryptocurrency exchange and has always provided CNY C2C business. According to relevant laws and regulations, its domain name is not displayed, and the Path is /p2p-markets/cny/sell-usdt
Paxful: This is a high-stakes barter-based platform featuring gift cards and weird payment swaps
Gateio: Sesame is a relatively pheasant cryptocurrency exchange. Like Ouyi, it insists on providing CNY C2C business. According to relevant laws and regulations, its domain name is not displayed, and the Path is /zh/c2c/usdt_cny
LocalBtc: This is a pheasant platform for foreigners, with a lot of black products
Local Monroe/agoradesk: This is a pheasant platform for foreigners, with a lot of black products
How exchange rates are applied
Except for a few platforms that use the “middle market exchange rate”, most exchange rates are directional, such as CNY->USD and USD->CNY exchange rates are different. Then the bank exchange rate is generally the buying and selling price of cash/notes.
Among them, the most obvious is that CNY->USD is about 0.14~0.15, and USD->CNY is 6.XX.
Then in the actual situation, the exchange rate direction of the comparison is the following reference example
- When using a USD card issued in the United States to spend CNY in mainland China, the exchange rate used is CNY->USD
- When using a CNY card issued in China to spend USD in the United States, the exchange rate used is USD->CNY
- Alipay WeChat CNY Mainland Card consumes USD in the United States, and the exchange rate used is USD->CNY (Alipay WeChat’s own exchange rate)
- After wire transfer from the U.S. to China, the U.S. dollar is converted into RMB at the Bank of China, and the exchange rate used is the purchase price of spot exchange. It is equivalent to the bank buying your dollars in RMB.
- After purchasing US dollars in the Bank of China, wire transfer to the United States, and the exchange rate used is the spot exchange rate. Equivalent to the dollar you buy with the bank in RMB.
so
- When you use an overseas card (such as a US card), note that the exchange rate you should see is the exchange rate around 0.15, which is your US card consumption RMB exchange rate.
- When you use the mainland card, note that the exchange rate you should see is the exchange rate around 6.5, which is the exchange rate of your RMB card consumption in USD.
- When you use an overseas platform to send money to China, the exchange rate you see should be around 6.5. This price should be compared with the spot exchange purchase price of banks in mainland China or the CNY->USD ratio of the card organization to reverse the direction of the remittance. Equivalent exchange rate (divide this by 1).
Generally speaking, the first choice is the exchange rate directly searched by Google, which is simple and fast, and is suitable for small-amount transactions.
If it is a large-amount transaction, you should pay attention to which is the best deal, especially the spot exchange purchase price when remittance to China and the use of Alipay, WeChat and other mainland cards for foreign currency consumption . These two situations are prone to a large point gap. .
If you are a cryptocurrency expert, you can refer to the CNY purchase price of the cryptocurrency exchange to obtain the USD equivalent exchange rate.
This article is reprinted from: https://www.blueskyxn.com/202208/6305.html
This site is for inclusion only, and the copyright belongs to the original author.