Korean Job Discussion Forums

[in_seoul_2003]

went to kb itaewon today, a place i have previously wired money home from with my arc card. got a different teller and she went on and on about how she has to stamp my passport and how i need a letter from the school and how there is a 10,000 dollar limit.

i told her that for the twenty odd money wire transactions i have done at kb banks i've never had my passport stamped, have never heard of a limit and have never been requested to give a letter.

my problem is not the law, it's the inconsistencies in applying the law at different branches of the same bank.

just to recap--

kb myungdong will stamp your passport if you change won into dollar
but neither kb itaewon nor kb hongdae or songpa will

kb myungdong will not let you send money home without stamping your passport but make no mention of a limit or school paper

but kb hongdae and songpa will let you send as much as you want with no passport and even if you provide a passport they won't stamp it and no paper

kb itaewon will allow you to send money home without a passport and without a letter and no mention of a limit but as long as you connect with the right clerk

this is confusing, man...

i thought it would be convenient to send money home from itaewon today but it looks like i was in the wrong location, or in the right location but wrong time/wrong clerk.

[spliff]

I've been sending money abroad every month for 5 yrs and have never been asked to do this...I mean, he!! your PP would get full pretty quick, wouldn't it?

[Milwaukiedave]

I have to agree with you that the rules seem to change depending on which bank you go to.

In the spring I sent more then 10,000 dollars back to the US and they initially wouldn't let me do it because the copy I had of my contract didn't have a stamp on it. Luckly for me, I was able to get a hold of someone at the school and they faxed over a copy that was stamped.

[tzechuk]

I refuse to deal with KB - they are a bunch of incompetent idiots.

KEB is much better.

[SeoulShakin]

My roommate is having a lot of trouble with KB bank in Itaewon right now. It's been ongoing for over 2 months. She went to send money home. Provided them with all the necessary information. They said her information was already in the system from another KB bank in Seoul, where she successfully sent home money from last year.

A month later, her money still hadn't arrived in her account at home. She went in, and they said they didn't know why. She asked to look at the information. They had typed in her account # incorrectly. She thought it was fixed, but the money still hadn't arrived. A few weeks of fighting later, they say "we aren't doing anything wrong, please call your bank in Canada and find out why they can't take the money.

She asked why THEY couldn't call the bank. They said she had to. So she did. Told them all her information. It all checked out. They asked her for some information. The banker in Canada was the one who recognized (through the codes) that KB had been attempting to send her money to the Toronto Dominion Bank rather than CIBC, even though her information CLEARLY had CIBC written on it. Morons.

[merkurix]

Call me paranoid, but if it is a U.S. passport, there is a clause that says "only U.S. government officials and authorized immigration officials in connection with official matters may stamp or sign a U.S. passport." I have been know to respond adversely if anyone other than immi officials want to write anything into my passport (especially Korean bank nitwits). I imagine such repeated markings will clutter up visa pages which could be otherwise spared for travel visas and such.

[MANDRL]

Just in case a newb is reading this thread, I bank with Shinhan and have never had a problem. I transfer money monthly and have never had the issue of them touching my passport. The first time you transfer money they will need your passport, contract, and ARC, and the process takes about 30 mins. After that though the process takes about 5 minutes. I usually transfer money to my Bank of America account at around noon KST and I check my BofA account at around 10 pm PST and the money is already there. It is great. It costs around $40 when it is all said and done between both banks, but the efficiency and peace of mind is well worth it in my book.

[SeoulShakin]

I also bank with Shinhan, and have also never had a problem. It takes between 1 and 3 days usually for me to get my money. I'd recommend them as well.

I feel bad for my roommate and her KB woes though.

[pdxsteve]

[pdxsteve]

[falldownstumble]

Weird, I use KB as well, and I've never had a single problem with them. They've never asked to stamp anything, they send my money home with no problems and it gets there the next day! I guess it really does depend on the branch.

[merkurix]

[Mr. Pink]

I've banked with KB bank since 1997: they are a bunch of wankers. They wanted to put a stamp in my passport last summer. I told them they were not allowed to do that, and if they didn't like my 10 years of business, I would take it to another bank. I think I shocked the person who told me that.

[Milwaukiedave]

As uptight as I can get about somethings here in Korea (like people driving like mad idiots), I just let them put the stupid stamp in my passport. It's in the back page so I could care less.

[maximreality]