Korean Job Discussion Forums

jweeke · Joined: 12 May 2010

After all the various fees I'm losing almost $50 to transfer $500. 15 for KEB, 10 for wells fargo and 20 for some mystery liason. I don't want to do this.

Transferring more less often is not an option right now.

Read about getting a second (?) atm card and shipping it back to the states. Is this possible?

Are there better banks?

Any other ideas?

mmstyle · Joined: 17 Apr 2006 Location: wherever

KEB will give you global cards, but they are stingy about more than 1 on 1 account. They would not give me 1 for my husband (he would have to open his own account).

I can't think of a cheaper way unless you change banks (as in, back home, because I don't think I deal with this and I use KEB).

ttompatz · Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Location: Kwangju, South Korea

Open a 2nd bank account in another bank. (B)
Get a global ATM card from the 2nd bank. (B)
Mail it home.

Just use an ATM here to transfer money from account A to account B.

Person at home takes money from "B" to pay your bills.

Your primary account is still secure and you can get the money home (assuming the card works at home).

CAVEAT:
Global ATM cards often have 2 PIN numbers. One for domestic use (4 digits) and one for international use (6 digits). Some of the machines at home won't accept the 6 digit PIN numbers.

2nd note: not all "global ATM cards" work abroad - as can be attested to by many who have tried to use theirs when on holiday only to find that they have no money and their "global ATM card use" was restricted because they were foreigners in Korea.

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