Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sistersarah]

going to the bank has become a pretty routine thing for me....for the past 8 months, i've been going there, and wiring my money to my account in canada, as well as paying my monthly bills. this hasn't been a problem. i have dealt with the same nice lady every time, she knows who i am, and everything goes smoothly.

today, i go in, sit down and wait...the usually 2 or 3 people butt in front of me, ok...i'm used to this. i wait about half an hour. i inquire to the nice lady how long a wait it will be. she says 10 minute. sure, no problem. 10 minutes later, i sit down and get ready to fill out the documents. she says "sorry, things have changed. you have to do that upstairs now." i was a little ticked. like, why didn't you tell me that 40 minutes ago? she knows who i am, and what i have to do .....

so...i go upstairs and don't have to wait long, luckily. the lady upstairs doesn't speak much english, but whatever. and, it seems i've reached my limit for sending money home....you can't send more than $10,000 out of the country. i wasn't aware of this.

what do you do when you've reached your limit? because if i open another account at another bank, the info will still be on my passport that i sent more than $10,000 home....then i'll be taxed on the extra money, right?
anyway, i said, ok, fine. can you help me pay these bills? she says, no, you have to do that downstairs no, i said, i'm going to do it here.

ok, no problem.

[T-dot]

i thought you couldn't send more than $10,000 in a single transfer.

i send more than that yearly. i think 10,000 is the max. for a single wire. i usually go through kb and there hasn't been a problem.

did you try sending more than 10,000?

its actually easier paying bills through the machine, there is usually a guy that will help and it only takes a minute to pay all your bills.

[sistersarah]

[peppermint]

Try going to a different branch first- I don't think I've ever needed my passport to wire money- just my ARC.

[sistersarah]

[flutieflakes]

ive been wiring an average of $1500 cdn a month for 5 years.........they have looked at my passport once and have never stamped a damn thing in it.........................

[canuckistan]

http://www.bok.or.kr/index.jsp

[HamuHamu]

Must be something about certain banks being more on-the-ball than others....I also have been denied once I hit 10,000 USD. (Being Canadian, they added up the Cdn amount and tried to deny me at $10,000 Cdn, but I got them on it, and made them realize that Canadian dollars and US Dollars AREN'T worth the same...). It bought me a few more months until I really DID hit the $10,000 USD limit.

Anyway, I tried to argue the amount, as they have only ONE TIME in 2 years (20 transfers total) written anything in my passport. My former hagwan was with a different bank (was Ki-up, now KB Star) and apparently my ARC had the old bank's amounts tied to it -- they pulled up a transfer listing of everything I had sent out since 2002, including the Ki-Up Bank amounts. Interestingly enough, Ki-Up only looked at my p-port the first time, passport and I always thought they weren't recording anything.

So, I thanked them nicely, got up to leave and then turned around and said "Hey, wait" (well, you know what I mean)... "Can I withdraw money internationally on this ATM card?" They said no.... I told them that on summer vacation I was going away and needed to withdraw money internationally....could I have a card that would do that? They easily gave me a second ATM card, no questions asked. (At this time, I have to admit, what I am thinking is "DUH!! CAN'T YOU SEE WHAT I AM ABOUT TO DO???!!!")

Express mailed the second ATM card to my mom, who has been faithfully withdrawing money from my Korean account every time I email her....depositing it into my Cdn account back home....

Problem solved

[canuckistan]

[Koreabound2004]

The agency I came here with warned me about the 10,000 limit. They said once you reach that limit, you have to bring a document from your employer. I forget the exact name of it, I have it at home, and will let you know tomorrow. Once you give them the document from your school, you should be able to continue sending money home, beyond that limit. Hope this helps.

[agraham]

[T-dot]

wiring varies with bank. look around some will stamp, some won't. some will put the actual $$ amount, some wont. i think the kb has the most expensive wiring charges, i think woori is cheaper.

[agraham]

[HamuHamu]

[/quote]
Can you avoid the wire charges by going this route? Is there a service charge for withdrawing from Canada? How much?[/quote]

Umm...looking at my bank book....and it's a bit hard to read....(does anyone else have that problem where things don't line up well in the columns of your passbook?)

Yes....it looks like there are charges....and it looks like it is only 582 won, but considering even a withdrawl from a different Korean bank is 1,200, that makes no sense..... hmmmmmmmmm...... perhaps the withdrawl charge is not shown as a seperate item, but included in the total amount of withdrawls....???

But the "transaction" is finished right away, save for the fact that most Cdn machines have W/D limits (like, $250 or $500 at a time) it takes my mom a couple of trips sometimes....but I always feel "safer" doing it this way for some reason. No waiting 2 or 3 days while the wire transfer swims it's way across the ocean -- not in my Korean acct, not in my Cdn accout....where could it be!?

Next month I'll track it in a bit more detail...how much was withdrawn, exchange rate, and then the KRW amount debited....then I can give you a better idea of the charges I suppose.....

[sadsac]

From previous posts about this topic, the $10,000USD rule only applies if they document your transactions in your passport. KB bank don't and never have in 4 years of sending money back to Australia and we have sent back about $45,000AUD in that time.