Korean Job Discussion Forums

[keela]

Time to leave, with bonus and pension in hand, but the Canadian dollar's strength gives pause for thoughts like;

- send now and soak up the losses
- wait and have a friend send it later
- take most as cash, and exchange later
- some unknown option that would make for sunnier days

'Would appreciate any helpful ideas or thoughts.

Darned dollar.

[gmat]

If you are going home to Canada, just convert it and be off. C$ could go higher, could go lower.

[jazblanc77]

[air76]

Currency markets take longer to change (generally) than they have recently....it could take up to a year or longer to make maybe $500 (or as another poster said, lose $500)....I know that 10 million sounds like a huge some of money, but is the possibility of making what would probably be 200-300 bucks worth the potential risk in carrying 5 thousand dollars worth of cash? or leaving 10 thousand dollars with a friend.

Cash it in and take your losses....or even cash it in for US Dollars and hold on to those...in a couple of years I would imagine that the US Dollar will gain a dime back on the Canadian dollar....that being said, this type of investment is really not much different than just investing in the stock market with your Canadian dollars hoping for a 10% return.

I think it's a wash either way.

[keela]

The few hundred won't make a difference in the long run, true, and, true again, who knows what will happen with the markets.

I've worked so hard for every single penny, 'know what I mean? I want to give it the best chance possible.

Thanks for the sound advice.

[zeppelin]

[MarionG]

The one option you DON'T want to select, is taking it in actual WON, in cash that is. Bills, whether won, canadian dollars, American dollars or Chinese Yuan, command the highest exchange cost because there is the most risk to the bank which is exchanging them.

I'm making up these figures, they may be very high or low, that's not the point:

Getting travelers checks in a foreign (i.e. Canadian) currency might have a spread (cost) of 1.75%
Getting foreign currency (i.e. Canadian) in Korea, or exchanging WON in Canada might have a spread of 2.5%

etc. etc.

Remember that whoever changes the money from one currency to another is assuming "currency risk." If they have to buy in the foreign currency (getting Canadian dollars here) or sell the foreign currency (if you give WON to a Canadian bank for Canadian dollars) this has the highest risk to the bank, therefore the greatest cost to you.

It has greater risk to the bank because it's slow...i.e. physical pieces of paper called WON of Canadian DOLLARS require transit time... no such transit time for other types of transactions, ie if you go into a Korean bank and pay for Canadian dollar traveler checks with won, the bank never has the Canadian dollars, therefore no risk to the bank of a change in the exchange rate while they are "holding" the other currency because they are never holding it.

[keela]

Great point, zepplin.

Great tip, MarionG.

I'll do the simpliest, and what seems the wisest thing, which is to transfer it to my account.

Thanks for your input everyone.