Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Samantha]

I was at the bank earlier today setting up an account for transferring student loan payments stateside.

The teller informed me that the regulations for maximum amount sent out has been increased. It was $10,000 USD a year. According to the teller this has been increased to $20,000 USD a year. Apparently this was done at the new year.

Thought I'd let those know who are doing the mass exodus given the new visa regs.

[kprrok]

Why do people still think there is a maximum?

THERE IS NO MAXIMUM AMOUNT THAT YOU CAN SEND!!!!!

There is only a limit at which you have to declare the amount and prove that you earned it legally. That is not the same as a maximum.

If that limit went up to 20,000USD, that'd be cool, but I haven't heard it anywhere else.

KPRROK

[Samantha]

[creesschaef]

How are the transfer fees then?

I'm looking for an account like this, but is the lower limit of 100K flexible?

[ellegarden]

I got the same or similar information from a teller at Woori bank.
Last year I went to a Woori bank near my house and they demanded a salary report.
This January I went to another bank and the teller didn't ask for one. I asked why and although she may have misunderstood my question she did mention that no information was needed if the sender was going to send a total amount of under 20k during a one year period.

[Samantha]

[waltjocketty]

it's not always 10%...there is a fixed transfer rate, which does not vary with the amount of money you choose to transfer. in your test run you used a small amount of money, so the %fee is high. also, as for fees on the other end, yes and it will usually be about 20 bucks. also you probly don't wanna send anything home to america right now because the dollar is really strong vs. the won.

[OiGirl]

I had gotten information about that automatic-transfer account. Please continue to share your experiences with it. Can money be transferred FROM any Korean account, or just from your regular KEB account? I think we have discussed this as a possibility for getting severance and pension payments.

[Tjames426]

I am continued to be amazed that people think they can transfer money without having employment. As long as you are employed and can produce evidence thereof, you can transfer any amount equal to the amount in your bank account.

Korea is not like Canada and the US. They do not let in unemployed deadbeats. F-2 visa holders exempt.

I go to the bank. I have a copy of my post recent monthly salary statement. I show a copy of my ARC card. I never have a problem.

***
However...

What I am interested in is tying my Korean bank account to Paypal. I would love to transfer my bank funds without the monthly bank visit.

[OiGirl]

I am unemployed.
I do not hold an F-2 visa.
The last contract I showed the bank ended in June.
I have had no problems transferring money to the US when necessary to deal with bills there.

[piscin]

I bank with Shinhan. Last year, I had no trouble sending money home once I provided my payslips.

This year however has been different, and I have been made to feel like a frigging criminal.

I went to send just over a million won last week and provided my payslip, my passport and my ARC. In the last three months I have sent home roughly a million a month ( under half my paycheck).

The bank teller proceeded to tell me that my payslip wasn't adequate proof of employment, and to give him him my boss's number, which I did. He then called my boss to "verify" my employment, but instead told him exactly how much money I have sent home to date.

Needless to say, I was absolutely irate. It's NONE of my boss's business how much money I am transferring.

Then, to top it all off, my boss got the wrong end of the stick, and thought that a thousand dollars was 10,000,000 Won, i.e. he thought that in the three months I've been here, that I'd send over $30,000 dollars home. He must've thought I've been working at eleven different hogwans, and pimping my ass out at the weekend to send that amount home.

I can't believe my bank teller just violated my privacy like that. Talk about feeling "owned" by your boss.

Heading over to transfer the rest of the money that I wasn't allowed to last week. Hopefully things will go a bit more smoothly....

[Kwangjuchicken]

I can't get over how weird it is that Koreans have to take their finger and count the number of zeros to know what a number is. If I see
1,000,000 I know it is a million without counting the # of o's.
If I see 1,000,000,000 I know it is a billion without counting the o's. And in a country where a can of coke costs 500,000 Won, you would think that Koreans would be much better than us at seeing a big number and knowing how much it is without counting the zeros. This is not your case where the guy did not know the rate of exchange. I mean in any situation that involves a big number I have seen 100's of times koreans counting the number of digits in order to know how much soemthing is.

[oldfatfarang]

[Zaria32]

Man, that is some really, really special Coke. 500,000 won per can you say? I want to try that Coke! And I'll bet the Coca Cola Company would like to know about that mark-up, they'll start charging a LOT more for Coca Cola syrup! Man, that's steep. I'm glad I don't shop where you do...

[Privateer]

As usual in Korea it's a different story depending on which bank you go to, which branch, which teller you speak to, and probably what time of the month it is too.

Solution: if you don't get what you want at one bank, try another.