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Seul
Joined: 09 Oct 2008
Location: Seoul
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 Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 2:39 am Post subject: Best place to exchange WON to US $ cash? |
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Heading home on vacation and just want to exchange 3 or 4 million won to US dollars to carry home. What is the best way to do this?
Thanks! |
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Nemo
Joined: 28 May 2006
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| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 3:42 am Post subject: |
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| Go to Itaewon or Namdaemun. |
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Seul
Joined: 09 Oct 2008
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:05 am Post subject: |
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| To a certain exchange place or bank? |
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madoka
Joined: 27 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 11:32 am Post subject: |
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| Walk into one of the local banks. Check the exchange rate. Then compare against the old ladies in Namdaemun. Check a few of the old ladies as they all have different rates. Some will even negotiate a LITTLE bit. |
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reactionary
Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Location: korreia
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| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 2:42 pm Post subject: |
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| where are the money changers in namdaemun? |
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madoka
Joined: 27 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 2:49 pm Post subject: |
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| If you walk more than 100 feet without a ajumma harassing you to change your money, then you are not in Namdaemun. |
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Mr. Pink
Joined: 21 Oct 2003
Location: China
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| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 2:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Myungdong also has money changers. I was skeptical at first, but the cash they gave me was real and the rate saved me BIG bucks. On a couple thousand dollars I think I got an extra 300,000 won from what the bank rate was. |
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adventurrre
Joined: 18 Aug 2009
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| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 10:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Mr. Pink wrote: |
| Myungdong also has money changers. I was skeptical at first, but the cash they gave me was real and the rate saved me BIG bucks. On a couple thousand dollars I think I got an extra 300,000 won from what the bank rate was. |
why do they do this? whats the benefit to them? |
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madoka
Joined: 27 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 10:51 pm Post subject: |
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| adventurrre wrote: |
| Mr. Pink wrote: |
| Myungdong also has money changers. I was skeptical at first, but the cash they gave me was real and the rate saved me BIG bucks. On a couple thousand dollars I think I got an extra 300,000 won from what the bank rate was. |
why do they do this? whats the benefit to them? |
A. They do it out of the generousity of their hearts.
or
B. They take a smaller cut than banks but still make a bit of profit.
Actually, watching them closely, I noticed that there is a woman who would go around collecting money and distributing out more to the old ladies as they need it. I wonder if they are actually employed by a company or if they pay the company to manage their monies. |
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Mr. Pink
Joined: 21 Oct 2003
Location: China
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| Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 3:59 am Post subject: |
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| adventurrre wrote: |
| Mr. Pink wrote: |
| Myungdong also has money changers. I was skeptical at first, but the cash they gave me was real and the rate saved me BIG bucks. On a couple thousand dollars I think I got an extra 300,000 won from what the bank rate was. |
why do they do this? whats the benefit to them? |
My guess at first was money laundering. What better way to move your money out of the country than converting it to a foreign currency undetected?
They use the xe.com rate, so I am unsure how they make money. Thus I will reason, they are doing tax evasion or some other type of business crime and I will benefit from not having the banks rape me with their rate of exchange. |
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The Gipkik
Joined: 30 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 5:21 am Post subject: |
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| Todays xe.com rate for 200 bucks was 225,000 Won. KEB exchanged it for 229,000 Won. Pretty good. |
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DeLaRed
Joined: 16 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 5:27 am Post subject: |
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| Mr. Pink wrote: |
| Myungdong also has money changers. I was skeptical at first, but the cash they gave me was real and the rate saved me BIG bucks. On a couple thousand dollars I think I got an extra 300,000 won from what the bank rate was. |
last time I went there I wanted to change won into $ but none of the places I went to had enough $. Went to many different money changers too.
Plenty of won but not the other way around. They don`t carry much $ it seems.
No problem changing Yen/GBP/USD etc > Won for the Japanese tourists etc shopping in Myongdong. |
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Mr. Pink
Joined: 21 Oct 2003
Location: China
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| Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 2:48 pm Post subject: |
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| DeLaRed wrote: |
| Mr. Pink wrote: |
| Myungdong also has money changers. I was skeptical at first, but the cash they gave me was real and the rate saved me BIG bucks. On a couple thousand dollars I think I got an extra 300,000 won from what the bank rate was. |
last time I went there I wanted to change won into $ but none of the places I went to had enough $. Went to many different money changers too.
Plenty of won but not the other way around. They don`t carry much $ it seems.
No problem changing Yen/GBP/USD etc > Won for the Japanese tourists etc shopping in Myongdong. |
I haven't tried actually getting USD there. I brought a ton of RMB from China and the rate for that specifically is what I was referring to. It was 171 there to change RMB to won or won to RMB. At the bank it was like 160 to change from RMB to won or 185 to change from won to RMB. When you are doing a big transaction, the difference is noticeable. |
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asams
Joined: 17 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 3:19 pm Post subject: |
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| The Gipkik wrote: |
| Todays xe.com rate for 200 bucks was 225,000 Won. KEB exchanged it for 229,000 Won. Pretty good. |
Are you changing from US->KRW or KRW->US? Because most of us here need to change from KRW->US and thus W229,000 for $200 isn't that great (considering it used to be something like W160,000 for $200) |
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Seul
Joined: 09 Oct 2008
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 9:23 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the replies everyone. I ended up going to my bank, Woori bank because I needed to do this fairly quick.
Google had the exchange rate that day at $1 = 1,127 W. They sold me dollars at 1,145 W for a dollar so I think it wasn't too bad. |
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