Sending money from Ireland to China
Euro converts once into yuan and lands as a domestic credit at ICBC, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China or any other Chinese bank. You will need the beneficiary's name exactly as their bank holds it, along with the bank, branch and account number. The rate and the fee both appear before you confirm.
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Colleges, kitchens and purchase orders
Two quite separate groups send money from Ireland to China. The first is personal. Chinese students fill lecture halls at UCD, Trinity, DCU and the University of Limerick, and Dublin has had a settled Chinese community for decades, visible around Parnell Street and in the restaurant and takeaway trade in almost every Irish town. Money goes home for family support, for a parent's medical costs, and for property still being paid off at home.
The second is commercial and much larger in value. Irish retailers, manufacturers and small importers buy from suppliers in Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, and those suppliers invoice in yuan and expect to be paid in yuan. A euro wire that lands as dollars, or as yuan at whatever rate the receiving bank chose, causes an argument over a shortfall every time.
Grey converts euro to yuan once, in Ireland, at a rate you see beforehand, and pays into the supplier's or the family's own Chinese bank account as a domestic credit. Nobody at the Chinese end needs a Grey account.
Three steps to a Chinese bank account
Open the account
No cost, roughly five minutes, and one valid identity document. China then sits among more than 80 countries reachable from the same Irish account.
Fund in euro
Move euro across by SEPA transfer from AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB, An Post Money or a credit union, and hold it until the invoice is due.
Enter the name exactly
Copy the beneficiary name straight from the invoice or the account, then add the bank, branch and account number. Check the yuan figure and confirm.
Where the cost of a China payment sits
Grey shows the rate and the fee separately before you confirm, with the yuan total underneath. For a buyer working to a landed cost per unit, that turns the payment into a figure that can be calculated in advance rather than explained afterwards.
A euro wire that is converted at the Chinese end does the opposite. The supplier is credited with an amount neither of you chose, and if it lands short of the invoice, the shortfall becomes a conversation before the next shipment is released.
The rate is fixed at confirmation
The euro to yuan rate is locked the moment you confirm. Between your tap in Dublin and the credit appearing at ICBC, the yuan figure does not move.
On a route where a supplier relationship depends on invoices being settled to the cent, that is the whole reason to use a service rather than a wire. The yuan amount you agreed is the yuan amount that lands.
For families, it works the same way. A parent in Guangzhou expecting a specific figure for a hospital bill gets that figure, not an approximation of it.
Grey against a wire from your Irish bank
When an Irish bank wires money to a Chinese supplier, the currency usually leaves as euro or dollars and the supplier's bank converts it at a rate you never see. Payments are sometimes held for review while that happens, and the supplier is left telling you the amount is short. Yuan arriving as a domestic credit avoids all of that. Grey quotes euro to yuan in Ireland, fixes it at confirmation, and delivers into the account at ICBC, Bank of China, China Construction Bank or Agricultural Bank of China as a local payment.
What the recipient in China sees
Yuan credited to their own account as a domestic transfer. No cash pickup, no collection code, no agent, and no Grey account needed at their end.
Any Chinese bank
ICBC, Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China are covered, along with smaller regional banks.
Name matching
Chinese banks reject payments where the beneficiary name does not match the account, so copy it from the invoice or the account rather than typing it from memory.
GreyTag
Where your contact in China also uses Grey, GreyTag moves money between you free and instantly, in any currency.
Funding to suit a shipping schedule
Import payments arrive in a rhythm set by the factory, not by you. A 30 per cent deposit, then a balance when documents are ready, then the next order. Funding ahead of that rhythm is the whole job.
Fund per order
Move across the full euro cost of an order when the proforma invoice is agreed, then release the deposit and the balance as each falls due.
Hold working capital
Importers running several suppliers at once keep a standing euro float rather than a transfer from the Irish bank for each payment.
Pay from dollars
Dollar income on the balance, in an account provided by Lead Bank, converts to yuan without a stop in euro.
Save the supplier once, with the name exactly as their bank holds it, and every later payment on that account reuses the same details.
What money from Ireland goes to China for
Supplier invoices
Deposits and balances on orders from factories in Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, settled in yuan against a specific invoice number.
Family support
Money home from students and workers in Dublin, Cork and Galway, often for parents' living and medical costs.
Study and exams
Fees, tutoring and exam costs for siblings and children still in China, paid by someone working or studying in Ireland.
Agents and inspection
Sourcing agents, quality inspection firms and freight forwarders in China invoicing Irish buyers in yuan.
The two senders on this route, the importer and the family, want different things from it, but both want the yuan figure decided in advance.
Why Irish senders choose this route
A Chinese supplier reconciles against an invoice number and an exact amount. A family in Guangzhou reconciles against a hospital bill. Neither of them has any use for a payment that lands close to the right figure.
Grey fixes the euro to yuan rate at confirmation, shows the yuan total before you send, and delivers into ICBC, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China or any Chinese bank as a domestic credit.
FAQs
What happens if the beneficiary name does not match the Chinese account?
The bank rejects it. Copy the name exactly as the supplier's bank holds it, which usually means taking it straight from the invoice.
Which Chinese banks can Grey pay into from Ireland?
ICBC, Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China, along with smaller regional banks, by account number.
Is the euro converted in Ireland or by the Chinese bank?
In Ireland, once, at the rate you see before confirming. The yuan arrives as a domestic credit with nothing converted on the way in.
What details do I need to pay a Chinese supplier?
The beneficiary name exactly as the bank holds it, plus the bank, branch and account number. The yuan total is shown before you confirm.
Does my supplier in Guangzhou need a Grey account?
No. The yuan lands in their own bank account as an ordinary domestic transfer, with nothing required of them.
Can I pay an invoice deposit and the balance separately?
Yes. Fund the euro cost of the order once, then release the deposit and the balance as two payments from the same balance.
Will the yuan amount change between sending and settlement?
No. Confirmation fixes the rate, so the yuan figure on the screen is the figure credited at the Chinese bank.
Can I pay a Chinese supplier from dollars rather than euro?
Yes. A USD account provided by Lead Bank sits beside the euro balance and converts straight to yuan.
Can a student in Dublin send money to family in China?
Yes. Open a free account with a valid identity document and pay yuan into the family's own Chinese bank account.
Do I need a business account to pay Chinese suppliers from Ireland?
No. Grey pays Chinese bank accounts from an ordinary account, with the rate and fee shown against each invoice.
How do I fund a payment to China from my Irish bank?
By SEPA transfer from AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB, An Post Money or a credit union, held in euro until the invoice is due.
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