Korean Job Discussion Forums

[articulate_ink]

I've encountered a couple of obstacles related to ATM money transfers and wanted to give everyone a heads-up.

First, last week, I transferred money between two of my accounts at KEB. The ATM showed a new screen with a security warning asking whether I was attempting to transfer money because of a phone call from a stranger. Voice phishing again. The options were counter-intuitive: a red button labeled CANCEL in English (but NO in Korean) and a green one that I think said ACCEPT in English and YES in Korean. I pressed the green button and it ended the transaction. To proceed, I had to start over and press the red one. Dumb. So this is an annoyance, not a roadblock, but it could be problematic if you (a) don't read Korean at all and (b) think logically.

Another transaction failed today, this time from Hana. Hana wouldn't allow funds to be transferred to an account with a foreigner's name on it without documented proof of a second place of employment as well as the recipient's (my) ARC. (I was not attempting to send money to myself.) If there's an official justification for this I'm sure it's to prevent privates or money laundering or whatever, but the obvious problem is it also means you can't, say, buy something off someone and pay at the ATM, or send money to a friend. But who is being targeted and how widespread is this restriction?

For the last year or so, the trend in banking has been increasingly to deny services to foreign residents under the guise of increased scrutiny. With luck, this won't turn into International ATM Cards: The Local Sequel as we suddenly find we can't receive funds via domestic ATM transfer because we have Englishy names. But that's what I'm afraid of. Has this happened to anybody else?

Two more months...

[Young FRANKenstein]

[articulate_ink]

Good. I hope this is just a passing blip, or one of those one-off "You're a foreigner so it's easier for me to lie and say there's a rule to prevent me from having to deal with you" things.

[CentralCali]

[jinks]

The last time I sent money home I had a hell of a run around from the teller, the manager and the English speaking 'help' operator. They said I had to go to my university campus KB branch to transfer my money, despite having made many previous transactions at that KB branch and only one at the campus branch. They said it was a new government rule.
Utter bollox, of course.
I did exactly what CentralCali advises and stood my ground - sat actually - I wouldn't leave my space at the teller's desk, I wouldn't go to the back office and I certainly would not go back to the waiting area. I kept restating my case and refused to take no for an answer, I was angry, but I didn't shout (I think I might have been hissing loudly, though) and I did not budge. They finally did put my transaction through (after calling the campus branch). So much for government rules; either it never was a rule, or it was a rule and the bank broke it after persuasion from a foreign customer.
My position was: I am a KB bank customer, this is my 4th year as a KB customer - I even kept my account when another university I worked for insisted I open an account with a different bank to receive my pay - and I was outraged at being refused service at a KB branch that I have been using since I moved into the district. If it was because I was a foreigner, then I was doubly outraged.
The whole process took about an hour and it was exhausting to maintain that amount of focused, outraged rgidity for so long. When the process was finally completed I looked up from the teller's desk and realised the bank was empty, the lights were off and all the customers were gone. If I had arrived any earlier than an hour before closing, I might not have been so successful completing what should have been a simple banking transaction.
This was a few months ago, I've had about three paychecks since, but I'm too f u c k e n gun-shy to face going through all that drama again just to access services from my bank.

[articulate_ink]

[the foystein]

I guess I am lucky. When I send money they take me to the VIP room and offer coffee and tea. Nice people

[Seoul_Star]

In the day to day joke that has become life in Korea, I encountered another stupid bank account related problem last week. I finally found a KTF store that was willing to get me a monthly cell phone plan(even though my skin is white!!), with just a 50,000 deposit. I was delighted. I thought had finally solved the problem of having to travel to Itaewon to buy prepaid phone cards. Upon setting up the service, they came to realize that all though I was allowed to setup the phone, it was not possible to register a foreigner's bank account to pay the monthly bill. So I can buy it, I can register the phone, but I cannot use my own bank account to pay the bill, because I am a foreigner.

Ahhh so close, and yet so far.

A Korean friend who took pity on me finally stepped in and just registered it in their name for me.

[CentralCali]

A few months ago, the English-language press cited some law that made it illegal to front for another person to obtain any kind of credit account, to include a "post-pay" cell phone account.

What difference should it make if the bank account is a foreigner's or not? All that should matter is if the company and the bank recognize each other for credit transactions. For my new LG "post pay" phone, I initially tried to use my BC check card. The LG rep called up the corporate ladder when the transaction didn't go through. It was really a very simple reason: LG wasn't accepting BC check cards. So, I used my US bank account Visa check card. No problem! I wasn't surprised that the BC check card got rejected. It doesn't seem to be as popular here as it used to be.

I'm starting to come to the conclusion that it's not the law, it's not the policy. It's simply so many incompetent service workers cannot admit that they don't know their job and toss out "It's because you're a foreigner" when they're either afraid to try to help us or when they screw up the transaction and it fails.

[ddeubel]

[Ut videam]

[RJjr]

Get an account at KB and deal with the Mokdong or Dunchon-dong branches. They'll do you right if no one else will.