Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Robot_Teacher]

Yes, It took over 2 hours in the bank for me to send 3 million won home from a Nonghyup bank, the only kind of bank in Gangwon-do. It was a long drawn out complicated process despite having brought all the necessary documents. I can only withdraw in increments of 1 million won so it had to be done 3 times in a row. The computer program was obviously extremely overly complicated for the young banker working with patience of steel, but scratching his head and sucking air in through his front teeth often as he looked at his screen in disbelief. I kept my cool, but did state after it was finished it was very wrong to require so much time and tedious technicalities. He aske if like coffee, I said, "yes, only in the morning, but in the afternoon I like time and money." He said I had to be cleared through many government laws to ensure I was eligible to transfer money. He also had to make numerous copies of my passport, ARC, and other papers as well as enter a great deal of data into a hard to use computer. He said it takes around 2 hours the 1st time foreigners send money home, but next time will only take 15 minutes.

I even had to make an official statement as why I was sending money out of the country which my answer was, "To fund my home account with US dollars."

I understand foreigners have been coming to Korea for over 15 years to teach English as well as to bank. How could they not yet have it togethor to appropriately accomodate us? I can understand things taking a long time in a less developed country like Mexicao, but not in a technologically developed country putting on an image of moderizing. 2 hours and 15 minutes is phenomenally long from my perspective for wiring money home.

[hogwonguy1979]

i've been using woori bank for 6 years now and its still that bad though not 3 hours, i allot an hour if you can believe it, each time they make me prove my income, passport etc. and they still wont replace my worn out int atm card

this may be the last month i do it as keb is much more foreigner friendly. you can bank at any bank despite what your school tells you.

[pavement burns]

Rural locations have rural speed of "Korea time" ~ a disappearing/lost world/art. It makes getting chummy with the staff a good possibility. Insist on a nice comfortable chair and bottomless tea or coffee service.

[spencer23]

I used to live in Ulsan and Suwon. AT KB bank it would always take between 1-2 hours to send my cash home every month. I thought that this must be the case with wiring money from any bank in the world.

I then moved to Taiwan, each month it took less then 20 mins to do the same thing. Korean banks

[wylies99]

Yeah, banking is a big issue with many ex-pats in Korea. There are some ROTTEN bank branches out there- especially KB bank. Too often foreigners are treated like criminals when trying to do simple banking transactions.

[oldtactics]

[Billos]

Try to go to a KEB bank (in most cities towns) and ask for a "easy-one" account, they will take details of your account back home, IBAN number, SWIFT number and bring along your documents, they'll create an account for you.

Then whenever you transfer any money from your Korean bank account (doesn't have to be a KEB account) into this easy-one account it will automatically transfer the money from that account to your account back home (minus the 15,000won fee, which is 3,000 less than normal for KEB).

Transferring your money to this account can be done from any atm in your village or town and saves you 3,000won and potentially 2 hours of trouble.

I have to say I must have been lucky as its only taken me 20 minutes at the most to send money back home.

Hopefully this helps.

[Robot_Teacher]

Right, I'm sure Wonju and Chuncheon has some other brands of banks other than Nonghyup. The green Nonghyup is the only kind in rural areas and is basically a farmers bank.

In Seoul I noticed KEB and a few others that look more business oriented, but they're not open on any day I'm off. I would do banking and postal matters in the big city if these services were available when I'm off. They don't run Saturday morning services like in America.

Well, at least I got the money sent and if it accurately works where it shows up in my account by Friday or Monday night Korea time, then I did really good as the nearly 3 hours I was out would had been just idle sitting time at my school. I even got my hands on some nice crisp brand new US dollars in all denominations to show my 6th grade classes in teaching, "How can I help you?" I'd love to have that stack of meegook paper they flashed in my eyes today. It must had been a wad equaling what a teacher typically saves in a year.

[RufusW]

[Tobias]

I never had any trouble wiring money back to the states, and I did it at least 6 times. I even wired money to Thailand a few times, and that went just as smoothly. I'd show up, tell the guy what I wanted to do, and he did it in seconds. It usually took me about 3 minutes from sitting down in the chair to getting up and leaving.

[OculisOrbis]

Figure out a few other things that you can only get done during business hours and then take a sick day and get a bunch of things done in addition to your banking set-up. If your going to take a sick for a reason other than being sick, at least make it one for productive reasons. I suggest this only if your school is unreasonable and wont give you time during the day to it - which, with EPIK, seems like most of them lately.......

[losing_touch]

At KEB, I haven't had a problem. It took me about 30 minutes in the branch to set it up the first time to be able to do it on the internet. Then, it took me another 20 minutes at home to get a digital certificate or whatever. Now, transferring literally takes about 2 minutes in total! It is 5,000- 8,000 won. I can't really remember!

[Xuanzang]

Just open a KEB account and use their online remittance service. Some branches open on Sundays if you can get to one.

[Robot_Teacher]

[billietea]

I understand your concern and agitation over the NH bank transfer, but it really is only the first time that it takes that long to transfer money. Since my first transfer I have sent money home a couple of times and once to another Asian country...a breeze...10 minutes max. after the first time.