Korean Job Discussion Forums

[aweitzm1]

Does anyone have any suggestions as a good bank to have in the US for wiring monthly money into an account? I need to send money back to the States to pay off debt.

Right now I have Wachovia but when I went to go ask them their procedure for wiring money they were not very helpful.

I also looked into Bank of America but I am unclear about their procedure. Does anyone have any information about BOA? One teller told me that I could do the wire transfers online from their website (both wiring to and from into an account)? Does anyone know if this is true?

I have read that some banks in Korea do not allow wire transfers from foreigners so I was looking at US banks that would allow me to make wire transfers online.

I am trying to figure out the best, fastest, and cheapest way to send money back home.

I would appreciate any help. Thanks in advance.

[charliebrown84]

Your best bet is to stick with a bigger national US bank, because the smaller ones tend to have a 'helper' in between the transfer. I've transferred money back home a couple times now, and each time a third party bank is snatching $18 out of the sum total that is going back home. Until I can change banks back home, I'm stuck...

[CeleryMan]

Get a Citigold account via Citibank...99% of all fees are waived and they give you a free security box.

[Drew345]

ETrade bank might be good for you.
https://us.etrade.com/e/t/banking
I think that they have no fee for incoming wires and they have a free bill-pay service so you don't have to mail checks.
They have a few accounts, so it takes a bit of reading to find the account for a persons needs.

[teretere]

Etrade is terrible. I dumped them when their customer support was some woman in the Philippines who had no idea what she was doing.

I recommend Charles Schwab. I use my Schwab investment account for international wire transfers and have standing instructions which lets me make transfers to foreign bank accounts with just a phone call to their international wires department.

The only downside with US accounts is they convert everything to dollars.

I keep a European bank account which is great as it lets you hold multiple currencies without forced conversions and full e-banking/e-payment capabilities across the European Union and EU.

[jsk]

Last December I wired money from my BoA account to my KEB account using the online service. It required an extra level of security (requires having a U.S.-based cell phone) but it was much easier than if I had to do it in person. For wiring money to the BoA account is pretty simple; you just have to provide the Korean bank with a few codes.

The downside to the convenience is the fees, about $35-45 plus the amount the Korean banks take off. But if you can get a favorable exchange rate for wire transfers, it's cheaper than physically bringing the money in or out.