My son will be in Shanghai for 4 months as part of a gap year. What is the best way for him to access his money while he is there? We were planning on an ATM card with credit card for back-up. (That way we could monitor his spending.) But the project manager in Shanghai for the organization he's going with said there can be problems with credit/debit cards and machines are not readily available. He said it's much better to take travelers checks. Do you agree? What's the best way to access your money if you'll be in China for an extended time? Thanks for the help.

I do not agree! I think it would be extremely difficult to exchange traveler's checks, not to mention costly. The best way to get money is via ATM -- I never had a problem. To be extra cautious, you could set up an account at a bank that has offices/branches in Shanghai -- Citibank, for example.

I had no problems finding ATMs and they all worked perfectly. Forget the traveler`s checks. I don`t know what the project manager is talking about. I used a credit card too.

The project manager is IN Shanghai and he said that ATMs are not readily available there? Odd.

My Australian ATM card doubles as a Visa card, and when using it in ATM mode (i.e. to make a cash withdrawal from my regular bank account, entering jy regular 4-digit PIN) I had to select the "credit" option to get my cash. (At home I'd select either savings or cheque account, as appropriate). Also, my bank recommended that I use Bank of China ATMs, which are everywhere. We had no difficulty finding ATMs in Shanghai or any other sizeable city we visited.

You might want to check with your bank to ensure that there'll be no problems with overseas use.

gabe:

Just spend nearly a month in China and Japan...no problem using debit ATM cards or credit cards anywhere. Shanghai has ATM's all over town and every place we went took our Master Card...I have an account at CITBANK and found Citibak branches in Beijing and Shanghai so I was able to bypass the service charges many times.
Haven't used Travelers checks in the past ten years...what a pleasure!
Stu T.

Stu T -- Well, actually Chinese Citibank does still entail a fee. Or at least, American Citibank does not recognize Chinese Citi as a "sister" bank. They still charge a rather hefty foreign transaction fee. On the upside, the card works!

Travelers cheques are a pain. Had no problems whatsoever using ATM cards in several locations in China, including Shanghai.
It might be prudent to ensure that your son has good card protection insurance, such as cardguard.
That should ensure that all eventualities are covered.

The above posters are right about travelers checks, they are not recommended almost anywhere now, very had to cash. I was in Greece a few months ago and one person in our party had a terrible time finding a bank that would take them it was awful. I've heard the same story from people that tired to use them in most other countries. Frommers travel talk has lots on the subject.

Debit cards are the best and have the least long term fees for use in other countries.