Overseas cash withdrawals from Chinese cards share a RMB 100,000 annual limit across all cards in your name
The limit is per person, not per card, including supplementary cards: RMB 100,000 equivalent per calendar year. Exceeding it suspends overseas cash withdrawals for the rest of that year and the next. Card purchases remain available and do not consume the separate USD 50,000 annual facilitated foreign-exchange purchase quota.
What it takes
Free to plan. Estimate cash needs before travel and use card payments where practical.
What you may gain
China's SAFE notice [2017] No. 29, effective January 1, 2018, caps overseas cash withdrawals on domestically issued cards, including supplementary cards, at RMB 100,000 equivalent per person per calendar year. Exceeding the annual amount suspends such withdrawals for that year and the following year. Borrowing or lending cards to evade the limit is prohibited. SAFE sends the suspension list daily; issuers must enforce it by 17:00 Beijing time that day. Listed people may inspect withdrawal details at a SAFE branch with valid identity documents. The per-card daily limit for foreign-currency cards changed from USD 1,000 equivalent to RMB 10,000; RMB cards retain RMB 10,000 equivalent daily. Issuers, domestic RMB-card clearing organizations and individuals violating the notice face Foreign Exchange Administration Regulation penalties. SAFE explains that overseas card purchases for ordinary travel, business or study expenses—food, lodging, transport and shopping—are unaffected and do not consume the USD 50,000 facilitated annual exchange quota. SAFE aggregates issuers' data with delayed rather than instant control to avoid slowing transactions. In 2016, 81% of domestic-card overseas cash withdrawals were below RMB 30,000 in the cited statistics.
Context & considerations
Calendar-year accumulation restarts January 1, but an imposed following-year suspension still applies. Only cash withdrawal is suspended, not card purchases. For legitimate large cash needs, the source points to prescribed foreign-exchange purchase and cash-carrying procedures. UnionPay warns that some ATMs do not allow the UnionPay route on dual-network cards, and local acquiring institutions may impose displayed surcharges unrelated to UnionPay. Credit-card cash advances accrue interest, so UnionPay recommends debit cards. See card freezing and fraud for lost, retained or misused cards.
Research & references
State Administration of Foreign Exchange (2017). Notice on Regulating Large Overseas Cash Withdrawals Using Bank Cards, [2017] No. 29, Articles 1–4, 6 and 7, effective January 1, 2018. https://www.safe.gov.cn/safe/2017/1230/21873.html; SAFE (2017). Questions and Answers on Overseas Cash Withdrawal Rules. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/2017-12/31/content_5251958.htm; UnionPay International. Overseas ATM Withdrawals. https://m.unionpayintl.com/wap/cn/serviceCenter/cardUsingInstructions/805.shtml