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Yaya
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Location: Seoul
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 Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 7:04 pm Post subject: Do NOT change your money at the airport |
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Someone posted that by law, Korean banks must offer the same FX rate anywhere, including at their Incheon International Airport branches. This is FLAT OUT WRONG.
I traveled to Southeast Asia for the weekend and checked the FX rates. KEB was offering 1,222 per dollar but the rate at the airport was 1,244. Then there are the worse rates you can expect when you enter the duty-free shop area.
Seriously, do NOT change your money at the airport unless you have no choice. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 7:31 pm Post subject: Re: Do NOT change your money at the airport |
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| Yaya wrote: |
Someone posted that by law, Korean banks must offer the same FX rate anywhere, including at their Incheon International Airport branches. This is FLAT OUT WRONG.
I traveled to Southeast Asia for the weekend and checked the FX rates. KEB was offering 1,222 per dollar but the rate at the airport was 1,244. Then there are the worse rates you can expect when you enter the duty-free shop area.
Seriously, do NOT change your money at the airport unless you have no choice. |
The rate difference you show is only about 1% and at current daily fluctuations is LESS THAN the change from the open to the close on any given day (the rates are updated 3x daily). There is also the difference between the remittance rate (the one you usually see on the website) and the cash rate.
I do agree that you should NEVER use the exchange rate given in the duty free shops.
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Yaya
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 8:43 pm Post subject: Re: Do NOT change your money at the airport |
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| ttompatz wrote: |
| Yaya wrote: |
Someone posted that by law, Korean banks must offer the same FX rate anywhere, including at their Incheon International Airport branches. This is FLAT OUT WRONG.
I traveled to Southeast Asia for the weekend and checked the FX rates. KEB was offering 1,222 per dollar but the rate at the airport was 1,244. Then there are the worse rates you can expect when you enter the duty-free shop area.
Seriously, do NOT change your money at the airport unless you have no choice. |
The rate difference you show is only about 1% and at current daily fluctuations is LESS THAN the change from the open to the close on any given day (the rates are updated 3x daily). There is also the difference between the remittance rate (the one you usually see on the website) and the cash rate.
I do agree that you should NEVER use the exchange rate given in the duty free shops. |
Still, my advice is to not change money at the airport. I bought $300 and lost $5 because of the airport rate (and it's not that bad) but it ain't the same rate as I would've rather had that fiver in my pocket. |
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Caffeinated
Joined: 11 Feb 2010
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| Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 10:28 pm Post subject: |
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| It's weird that prices at the Incheon duty-free are first listed in USD. Does that mean that if you pay in KRW they're actually converting from KRW to USD? |
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bbb0777
Joined: 24 Aug 2009
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| Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 11:08 pm Post subject: Re: Do NOT change your money at the airport |
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| Yaya wrote: |
Still, my advice is to not change money at the airport. I bought $300 and lost $5 because of the airport rate (and it's not that bad) but it ain't the same rate as I would've rather had that fiver in my pocket. |
Well their point was maybe you *didn't* lost $5. The exchange rate fluctuates throughout the day. It's almost certain the rate changed between the time you were at the bank, and the time you were at the airport exchange office. Unless you had someone at the bank checking it right that second - it's difficult to say for certain that the bank/airport office didn't offer the exact same rates. |
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Yaya
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 12:07 am Post subject: Re: Do NOT change your money at the airport |
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| bbb0777 wrote: |
| Yaya wrote: |
Still, my advice is to not change money at the airport. I bought $300 and lost $5 because of the airport rate (and it's not that bad) but it ain't the same rate as I would've rather had that fiver in my pocket. |
Well their point was maybe you *didn't* lost $5. The exchange rate fluctuates throughout the day. It's almost certain the rate changed between the time you were at the bank, and the time you were at the airport exchange office. Unless you had someone at the bank checking it right that second - it's difficult to say for certain that the bank/airport office didn't offer the exact same rates. |
I went by the closing rate of the KEB Friday, which was 1,122.83 at 4:51 p.m. I bought cash dollars around 7 p.m. at Incheon International Airport and I highly doubt it fell to 1,244 in just two hours. |
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DeMayonnaise
Joined: 02 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 3:03 am Post subject: Re: Do NOT change your money at the airport |
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| Yaya wrote: |
| bbb0777 wrote: |
| Yaya wrote: |
Still, my advice is to not change money at the airport. I bought $300 and lost $5 because of the airport rate (and it's not that bad) but it ain't the same rate as I would've rather had that fiver in my pocket. |
Well their point was maybe you *didn't* lost $5. The exchange rate fluctuates throughout the day. It's almost certain the rate changed between the time you were at the bank, and the time you were at the airport exchange office. Unless you had someone at the bank checking it right that second - it's difficult to say for certain that the bank/airport office didn't offer the exact same rates. |
I went by the closing rate of the KEB Friday, which was 1,122.83 at 4:51 p.m. I bought cash dollars around 7 p.m. at Incheon International Airport and I highly doubt it fell to 1,244 in just two hours. |
May want to edit your first post then. 1122 -> 1244 is a much bigger difference than 1222 -> 1244. Unless this post is a typo.
A difference of 22 won hardly seems like any reason to make a special trip to the bank though, unless you're talking about thoursands of dollars. For $300? Nah... |
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Yaya
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 7:01 am Post subject: Re: Do NOT change your money at the airport |
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| DeMayonnaise wrote: |
| Yaya wrote: |
| bbb0777 wrote: |
| Yaya wrote: |
Still, my advice is to not change money at the airport. I bought $300 and lost $5 because of the airport rate (and it's not that bad) but it ain't the same rate as I would've rather had that fiver in my pocket. |
Well their point was maybe you *didn't* lost $5. The exchange rate fluctuates throughout the day. It's almost certain the rate changed between the time you were at the bank, and the time you were at the airport exchange office. Unless you had someone at the bank checking it right that second - it's difficult to say for certain that the bank/airport office didn't offer the exact same rates. |
I went by the closing rate of the KEB Friday, which was 1,122.83 at 4:51 p.m. I bought cash dollars around 7 p.m. at Incheon International Airport and I highly doubt it fell to 1,244 in just two hours. |
May want to edit your first post then. 1122 -> 1244 is a much bigger difference than 1222 -> 1244. Unless this post is a typo.
A difference of 22 won hardly seems like any reason to make a special trip to the bank though, unless you're talking about thoursands of dollars. For $300? Nah... |
Ok, sorry for the typo. It was 1,222, not 1,122.
I'll still change my money elsewhere. |
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