The standard structure
Most China manufacturing orders are quoted as 30/70 T/T: 30% deposit on order confirmation, 70% balance against a copy of the bill of lading.
This split is a cash-flow compromise, not a protection mechanism. The deposit funds the factory's raw materials; the balance is timed so the buyer pays around the point the goods physically leave.
What it does and does not protect
The buyer's only real leverage is that the factory needs the original bill of lading released to get paid, and the buyer needs it to collect the container. That is genuine, but narrow: it protects against the goods never shipping. It protects very little against the goods being wrong.
Once a wire settles, the money is gone. There is no dispute process, no reversal, and no third party holding anything.
How long it takes
Same day at best, about five working days at worst, and most China-corridor wires land in one to three. What adds the days is rarely the transfer itself:
- The sending bank's cut-off. A wire instructed after it starts the next working day, and Friday afternoon means Monday.
- Each correspondent hop. A payment routed through two intermediaries is two more banks that each queue it.
- The receiving bank's own checks. On the mainland leg the beneficiary usually has to give their bank the contract and invoice for SAFE purposes before the funds are released into their account. That step belongs to the factory, not to you, and it is the commonest reason a wire that "arrived" is not yet spendable.
The consequence people miss: money can leave your account days before the factory can use it, so a supplier saying "not received" is often telling the truth about their own balance while the payment sits in their bank's queue. Ask your bank for the SWIFT reference and give it to them — do not send it again. A duplicate wire to a Chinese beneficiary is far harder to get back than it was to send.
Whether it can be recalled
Not once it has been credited, which is the answer that matters — but "settled" is doing some work in that sentence, and the gap before it is worth knowing about.
While the payment is still in transit, your bank can send a recall request to the receiving bank. It is a request, not an instruction: the receiving bank decides, and in practice it asks the beneficiary whether they agree to return the money. If the account has already been credited, the bank cannot take it back without the beneficiary's consent. So a recall against a supplier you are already in dispute with is a request to the person you are in dispute with.
That is the whole of it. There is no chargeback, no card-scheme reversal, and no intermediary holding the funds who can be asked to stop. If a wire has gone somewhere wrong, act within hours rather than days, give your bank the reference, and expect a fee whether or not it works.
Costs
- $15-50 per wire from the sending bank
- $10-30 in correspondent bank fees, often deducted in transit
- An FX spread of typically 1.5-3% if your bank converts, usually the largest and least visible cost of the three
Ask whether fees are OUR (sender pays all), SHA (shared), or BEN (beneficiary pays). Under SHA, correspondent fees are deducted from the amount in transit, so the factory receives less than you sent and may treat the order as underpaid.
Making a first T/T succeed
Payments to a new mainland Chinese beneficiary fail often. Confirm before sending:
- Beneficiary name exactly as on the business licence
- The correct branch CNAPS code
- SWIFT/BIC of the receiving bank
- A stated payment purpose, for SAFE compliance
Send a small test payment first.