Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sunnydaysahead]

Hello all, I bank at Woori Bank and was hoping someone could shed some light on this:

This is the second month that I've changed won to American dollars and had Woori Bank transfer the money into my American bank account (ING Direct). Woori Bank charges me 20,000 won to do the transfer.

When I checked my ING Direct balance to make sure this month's transfer had gone through, it came out to US$15 less than Woori Bank said it was transferring.

I called ING Direct, and the rep told me they don't have a surcharge for accepting wired money.

So today I went to Woori Bank and asked where the missing $15 was. The rep said she didn't know, but that she thought "maybe" it was because Woori Bank doesn't give the money directly to my bank, it goes through a "middle" bank that might take out fees.

It's not that $15 is that much money, but that much money over a year -- plus the 20,000 that Woori charges -- is going to add up. I also feel uncomfortable that the $15 magically disappeared and Woori Bank doesn't know where it went.

Has anyone else had this experience? I looked at the FAQ about transferring money, but most of the stuff was from a few years back and fees/rules may have changed. Should I be okay with paying about $35 a month in order to transfer my money to my U.S. account, or is there a cheaper, easier way to do it?

Thanks in advance.

[pkang0202]

I went to KEB bank to get my money transferred. The first 2 times no problems. The 3rd time I got my money in my Bank of America account + $10 wire transfer fee. On top of that, my transfer amount was short about $15.

I called /bank of America and was like "Yo, what gives. I got a wire transfer fee when you said there would be no fees for incoming international wire transfers".

Bank of America told me that the wire transfer was domestic. Since it was domestic, I was charged a fee. I'm scratching my head and trying to tell them I have the transfer receipt in front of me and I am 100% sure I was in Korea when I transferred the money. They transferred me to a few departments and finally I spoke to someone who told me the wire transfer came from Jo Morgan/Chase.

So, I figure my money went from KEB ($18 transfer fee) -> JPMorgan/Chase (they probably took out $15) -> Bank of American (They took out $10)

My guess is, the dumbass at KEB inputted the wrong code into their computer and sent my money to JP Morgan/Chase instead of Bank of America. JP Morgan/Chase got my wire transfer, looked at the information, and kindly forwarded my money to Bank of America where it belonged, minus a fee of course

Here's the beauty part. Bank of America's international wire transfer investigation department is only open mon-fri 9am - 5pm Pacific Standard time. So, either I stay up til 1AM to try and speak to before I sleep, or I wake up at 6am to try and talk to them before I go to work.

[pdxsteve]

[sunnydaysahead]

Thanks for the responses. So it looks like it'll be about $35 a month to transfer money through Woori Bank. I read in the FAQ that some people have their bank give them a check for American dollars, then they mail it back home and have someone deposit in their account. I'm thinking of doing that if that's a lot cheaper. Has anyone chosen that route and done it recently?

[I-am-me]

I transfer money from KEB to Bank of America and BOA always takes out about $15 from the wire transfer. I did find out that since I have a dollar savings acct with KEB, I can transfer money from it and it saves me the 7,000w exchange fee. Any bit of savings helps!

[jimmiethefish]

I've used both Woori Bank and Pusan Bank with no extra charges showing up. I send money back to New Zealand and pay the fee here and a receiving fee there. I got the swift code from my bank so I could be sure it was going directly to where it was supposed to go. The first couple of times I did it, I made an extra NZ$150 by changing currencies from won to US$ to NZ$. Sadly, that advantage no longer exists as the Kiwi is far too hot now. I usually make a transfer once every two months and make sure that any credit cards payments are ahead so the savings on transfer fees aren't wiped out by interest charges.

[cangel]

I transferred money to my BOA account through a Woori bank ATM on Monday around 4PM. It still hasn't arrived in my BOA account. How long does it usually take?

When I was working in Japan, I used Lloyd's of London remittance service. Llyod's charged about USD20 and my bank (BOA) charged me USD10. I also lost a bit on the exchange rate. The good part is that, if I transferred the money before 3PM, it was in my account the next day (business day).

[freethought]

Though I cannot say for certain I think this is an exclusively american banking issue with regards to the fees.

As for the fees themselves and the intermediary charges, I would say that likely has to do with partner banks. I haven't done it, but I suspect that Woori may have a partnership deal/plan with JPM, and other banks might have similar deals.

If you do a quick google search it might reveal more.

[jvalmer]

[peppermint]

There's no law that says you have to do a transfer every month. I did one every 4 or 5 months and you dont' miss 20K much when wiring 6-7 mil home.

Other options: You can get a money order from your bank for about 10 bucks and just mail it home. It will take longer, and your bank back home may put a hold on it, but it's safe as houses.

I've heard of people doing this with travelers cheques too, but that seems a little more risky

[ttompatz]

[sunnydaysahead]

Thanks for all of these responses. I know it's been a while, but I wanted to add that I did a money order with Woori and it cost about $20 -- I'm mailing it to my home bank in the US. Still $20, but much less than the $35 it was costing me to do the transfer directly into my bank account back home.

(By the way, back in the summer, I did try putting money into my home account with Western Union Travelers' Checks. I mailed them back home and everything went fine, but I was really nervous the whole time that they were going to be lost in the mail. There was barely any charge at all for doing that.)

[moosehead]

this sounded exactly the way I reacted when I first arrived in Korea - typical of K lack of transparency, info, etc, despite the number of foreigners here transferring funds to their home countries, no one explains how it works.

when you do a wire transfer internationally, it has to be handled thru a 3rd bank which has relationships and authority in both countries to do the transfer.

Citibank is one of the ones that did the transfers in the past, it might still be the one. For a while, my fees would add up to almost $60 to do a transfer. There was a charge here, by my bank and the intermediary that handled the transaction. There was no way around it, it's just a corrupt system banking corporations set up to gauge customers.

My bank used to charge around30-35 to handle these fees but now it's gone down to $11 dollars because I've been making them for a while - apparently after a while you get a discount of sorts. Maybe your bank will do the same.

*Just watch out for overseas credit card usage fees to convert funds. My bank also charges a small fee on each transation, maybe 2% of the total or something for the currency conversion.

You'll get used to it. Just don't send funds home every month; try and space it out.

[MarionG]

I've always sent money to my B of A account by buying dollar denominated American Express Traveler's checks. I make them payable to "account of (me)" and sign at the bank, and on the bottom line before I mail.

Works great, and low cost...but it takes the mailing time, and that seems to vary between 10 and 15 days..on about day 12 I start getting really antsy, but it's always showed up.

[MarionG]

I've always sent money to my B of A account by buying dollar denominated American Express Traveler's checks. I make them payable to "account of (me)" and sign at the bank, and on the bottom line before I mail.

Works great, and low cost...but it takes the mailing time, and that seems to vary between 10 and 15 days..on about day 12 I start getting really antsy, but it's always showed up.