Korean Job Discussion Forums

[kiwiinkorea]

Is it normal for a public school to take money from your bank account to pay for lunches and school trips without telling you prior to them taking it?

If it is not a standard thing what would be the best way to go about stopping it?

[Murakano]

well my school deduct my lunch fees from my monthly salary but never physically goto the bank and ACCESS my bank account (if that`s what you mean). How can they unless you gave them your bank book/card?

Don`t know about others.....

[different]

Do banks really let employers do that in Korea? If so, that's f-ed up.

[cruisemonkey]

[kiwiinkorea]

I wish I was delusional!

Yes the school is going into my account in the middle of the month and taking the money from the account by a direct transfer. They have the bank account details in order to pay the salary but I never (knowingly) agreed that they could take money from my account. I would be quite happy if they deducted the lunch money before they paid me but am not happy with the currect situation.

[Alaskaman]

Dude that is illegal. Tell them that they do not have premission to access your money and to tell you when your lunch fee is due and you will bring the money to the office. Tell them at no time do you accept that they are accessing your account. I have see this is private schools but never public schools. They might have created an online security code for you to gain access to your account. Just go to the bank and close the service. My public school doesn't even charge me for the lunch. They think that it is cool that I am eating with them and hanging out. Surprised that they are making you pay for this.

[zipper]

[sarbonn]

This was not unusual in the past. Your best bet is to open up an account of your own and immediately transfer the bulk of your money into it. NEVER mention the new account to anyone. Don't let them take money out of your account. Don't have them transfer your pay to the new account. Just do it yourself, and do it fast whenever you get paid.

[Bog Roll]

[nobbyken]

My school stopped automatically deducting lunch-money from my salary, because of some rule change they were informed of by City Hall.
These days I telebank the money back to the school each month.

OP, I would suggest either finding someone at your school or your bank who you can speak to. Explain that the account is not a transfer account but a personal one and if the bank do anymore transfers without your request that you will close it.
You should also be in possesion of a little security card full of numbers to carry out telebank transactions. If your school has this card, they do not need to go through the bank to deduct the money. If the school overpays you via a banking error, then bank can legitimately transfer the money back; this has been my experience.

[thoreau]

<<<deleted>>>

[cruisemonkey]

[Sector7G]

[sara210]

Hey,

I work for a public school and they also take money for lunches midway through the month. I aslo never knowingly signed anything to allow them to do this. I also gave them no other details other than my bank number so they can pay me.


I was initially uncomfortable with this and spoke to my co teacher (who is not Korean but has been in Korea for 10 years) and she seemed to think there was nothing to worry about and this was not out of the ordinary.

At the end of the day, my school have always treated me really well, and therefore i see no reason why they would take money out of my account that they weren't entitled to; Public Schools are generally not out to screw foreigners over.

I guess its just something they can do in Korea, so im just going to keep an eye on it, and if things start to take a path that im not happy with i'll open a seperate bank account.

I guess this is your only other option, to open a second account and move your money into that, if you don't trust your school. But if you do trust them then why not just give them the benefit of the doubt until they do something to prove they cannot be trusted.

[benji]