Fuddland

Today I needed to transfer some of my hard-earned cash to my UK bank account via the Bank of China, so I thought I’d list what information one needs to provide in order to fill out their form, for anyone else who might be searching for help beforehand:

• A photocopy of your passport

• Your bank’s registered address

• Your bank’s SWIFT/BIC [Bank Identifier Code] number [this is a unique code of the form XXXX XX99 assigned to each bank for easy identification], which you write instead of your bank’s usual name on the form

• Your IBAN [International Bank Account Number, which should by EU law appear somewhere on your statement]

Make sure you leave enough money in your pocket to pay the transfer fee—how much you will be charged depends on how much you are transferring, but it can run in a few hundred yuan for transfers of a couple of hundred pounds.