Korean Job Discussion Forums

DIsbell · Joined: 15 Oct 2008

When you think of 15% interest, the rate is expressed as 0.15. To calculate interest of say, 5%, you'd do I = Principle x .05 x time.

As far as taxes go, yes you do pay taxes on interest from a CD as income in the states, but since you're exempt from foreign earned income up to 80 grand, I'd imagine you wouldn't have enough interest earnings on CDs to make it into a tax bracket for stateside income unless you were doing some serious investing.

shostahoosier · Joined: 14 Apr 2009

I can see his confusion though. I realize that 15% can be expressed as 0.15 but that's not 0.15% right?

DIsbell · Joined: 15 Oct 2008

Yeah it can definitely be a bit confusing, but that's just how the rates were expressed by my bank. Now if it is actually ".15%" (.15/1% or .0015%), I'll be getting about $7.50 in interest... which would be basically the same as a low-interest standard savings account. Pretty sure that's not the case.

So yeah, definitely check out your banks back home. Despite the popular wisdom about the US financial system being in shambles and the country being on the verge of collapse, you can actually get some good rates on CDs.

For those who've done CDs with Korean banks, have you had any good experience with short-term CDs? A six-month CD might be something I want to look into for a smaller amount of cash while I'm still in Korea.

dgove · Joined: 23 Mar 2010

[quote="DIsbell"]Yeah it can definitely be a bit confusing, but that's just how the rates were expressed by my bank. Now if it is actually ".15%" (.15/1% or .0015%), I'll be getting about $7.50 in interest... which would be basically the same as a low-interest standard savings account. Pretty sure that's not the case.

So yeah, definitely check out your banks back home. Despite the popular wisdom about the US financial system being in shambles and the country being on the verge of collapse, you can actually get some good rates on CDs.

For those who've done CDs with Korean banks, have you had any good experience with short-term CDs? A six-month CD might be something I want to look into for a smaller amount of cash while I'm still in Korea.[/quote]

Trust me bro, you are not getting 15% return on an 11 month CD. I am positive you read it wrong, or are actually getting a fifteenth of a percent, the latter is very likely considering America's banking failures. A 15% return on a cd would not just be a "good rate" it would be "holy shit my brain is going to explode because this is the best god damn cd rate in history" A CD is a safe, low interest investment. If you are getting 15%, you are far and above outperforming the average historical stock market return rate, which before the latest financial crash hovered around 8-10%. If you can get 15% on a CD, no one in their right mind would even touch the stock market when you can get a sure bet to outperform it by at least 5%. Ok, I'm done hammering in how silly that post was.

nate1983 · Joined: 30 Mar 2008

DIsbell · Joined: 15 Oct 2008

Yeah, I've been misreading.

Apologies for confusing anyone else along the way.

JSC · Joined: 07 Dec 2010

I opened up a 1 Year CD with KEB last week. Rate was 4.14%.

eac · Joined: 23 Dec 2008

I've been using Daewoo Securities for a while now. I'm getting 3.5% on a CMA and also have a brokerage account and mutual fund with them. They're quite accommodating of foreigners. I'm working with Alex Choi (02) 568-4488.

Lazio · Joined: 15 Dec 2010

We are getting 4.7% at 신협. No tax if it's no more than 20 mil. It will expire soon so it was almost a year ago. I don't know what would they give now. Back than my wife searched on the internet for a couple of hours to find this one the best. Only one branch in Gunpo-si gave this rate.

A few months ago we needed 7 mil for something. We could get a loan against this account with 4.7%+1% interest. Payed back in less than 2 months with only 30,000 or so interest on the top of the loan.