Korean Job Discussion Forums

[in_seoul_2003]

pardon the economics ignorance here but do banks go by their own exchange rates? i just sent money home and notice a 100 dollar discrepancy between my bank's rate and what i should have got according to xe.com's rate.

[ceesgetdegrees]

Could be fee's? On this topic, i'm going to thailand for a while and really don't want to be shafted with currency xchange like last time when i changed won to baht at incheon airport. Whats the best way to go about this? Buying us dollars from my korean bank then changing us dollars for baht in thailand?

[ajgeddes]

Have you even noticed that there are 2 different rates when exchanging money? A buying and a selling rate? Those are different so they can make money. If they just used the rates on xe.com, they would lose money.

[sojukettle]

Are your "mid-market" currency rates buy rates or sell rates?

The mid-market rates shown in our information services are neither "buy" rates nor "sell" rates. Mid-market rates are derived from mid-point between the buy and sell rates of large-value transactions in the global currency markets.

Since "buy rates" and "sell rates" include overheads and profit margins that are set independently by each foreign exchange provider, they will vary depending on who you're talking to, and will always be different than the mid-market rate.

[Nemo]

[eliross]

My bank charges a percentage and surcharge on transfers. I paid 18,000 on a 156,000 transfer. I'm not sure how much of that was a surcharge or what the percentage was.

[marmotkorea]

The xe rate is not the rate banks will use for FX transactions for individual customers. The banks are free to set any rate they wish.

[crazy_arcade]

It's important to remember that you aren't exchanging currency...you are buying it.
The bank operates just like any other business. They set the price that you buy it at so they can make a profit off the exchange. When you send money home they profit twice. Once when they sell you your currency and once when they send it to your home bank.

You can search different banks to see if any have a better selling rate than others, however, I'd bet a lot that banks fix it. Smaller currency exchangers (like those at an airport) charge more for foreign currency.

[TexasPete]