Has anyone paid cash into a bank account recently? I am not 100% certain that this is still allowed under the new regulations.

I have somebody who wants to give me some money, and online transfer is proving difficult due to name issues on the electronic form. I want this money to go into my Chinese bank, not onto my phone.

Don't a lot of ATMs still have this as a function?

Are you asking about an international wire transfer or a domestic wire transfer? Since you mentioned a mobile app, I'll assume this is a domestic transfer.

DOMESTIC TRANSFER
For domestic - you can send money directly to your bank account via the ATM - just use the TRANSFER menu and they enter your bank account number (it's on your ATM card). It helps if you're both using the same bank, to avoid domestic interbank (aka union pay) transfer fees.

The machine will verify the name minus your surname (blanked out) as a final check before the transaction is authorized. Funds usually take 24 hours to post.

INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER
You can use the standard SWIFT - which is a bit painful the first time around because of the inconsistent foreign naming conventions used when opening your bank account and character truncations for longer names. You'll have to bash your way through it a couple of times to get into the rhythm.

Alternatively - you can also use P2P (peer to peer) apps, which avoid the SWIFT transfer fee - typically USD 35. If you have PayPal - you can transfer money to yourself offshore, then transfer it (via SWIFT) to your attached and registered chinese bank account - incurring SWIFT fees and nominal currency exchange losses.

Finally - if you have Chinese friends or contacts overseas or domestically - you can transfer foreign currency to them offshore and they can then use Chinese apps linked to alipay or WeChat to transfer CNY directly to or your bank account.

Finally - my neighborhood bank redirected me to transfer my account to the ChengDong branch of CCB on DongFang Lu several years ago - as they're the only Kunming CCB branch apparently authorized to take international wire transfers for foreigners. Whether that's true or just something somebody made up is unknown, but it works consistently after bashing through the process a few times and they're familiar with me. We have the process down to about 20 minutes now. The process used to take a couple of hours - mostly waiting for multiple tellers - one to transfer the SWIFT funds into my international currency account and the second to convert into CNY.

Now the same agent who accepts the SWIFT transfer also does the currency conversion. Yay.

Remember you're limited to USD 50k in personal currency exchanges per year. Not a big deal unless you're planning on a large purchase, such as a new home or an expensive car.

For international SWIFT transfer the last time I sent EUR to China was January or so.

Already a while before that there was a change in regulations on Chinese side, that you have to clearly indicate the purpose of the transfer in the message field of the SWIFT transfer (for example "money for personal expenses"). Otherwise the money will get stuck in the Chinese bank and not go into your account until you go clear this in person.

For domestic transfers of small sums, at least I have option in WeChat to transfer money from WeChat wallet to the domestic bank that is linked to my WeChat account. There is a small fee and I assume some limit. But if it's not a large sum, and your only concern is to get the money to your Chinese bank, that would be my suggestion.

@tigertigerathome
I do cash deposits at the end of every month.

I hope nothing has changed since that's my method of moving money from my Canadian Pension to my BOC account here.
I've tried the Global Money Transfer systems that are supposed to include China but that didn't work for me.

Thank you all for your replies.

@tigertigerathome
A little update just for you.
I made it into the city yesterday to do my "international" banking.

There was no problem in withdrawing cash using my Canadian bank cards, then depositing the same cash into my Bank of China Account.

After re-reading you note though. I had to think back a few months.

BOC were upgrading their ATM systems, and for a while I had great difficulty finding a machine that would accept a deposit.

They've now finished their upgrades and all is functioning again.

Thanks for the update.

"China's new cash deposit policy, expected to be effective from March 1, was delayed for technically reasons, PBOC said yesterday. The rule, aimed at preventing money laundering, requires banks to verify clients' identity when depositing or withdrawing over CNY50,000 or USD10,000."

Source:

The People's Bank of China website notice / Yicai

Take note of limit on ATM transfers between Chinese bank accounts, 50,000 rmb. There is a 24-hour waiting period for the transfer to go through. All of this explained on ATM screen at time of transfer.