Korean Job Discussion Forums

[depth]

hi all,

if any of the forum experts could please advise...

1) are the rates usually better in the australia or korea

2) is there a waiting time in korea (few days?) or can it be done straight away?

thanks for any answers , i'm also going to ring the airport in busan to see if they can answer

[icicle]

Not really too much difference either way .... I did some at Sydney airport when I came over just over a month ago and took some out here in Seoul after I arrived at fairly similar rates ... You can either take carry cash in Australian dollars ... with a fee charged on conversion or ... simply do an ATM transaction on one of the ATM's here which take foreign cards .... (Fee ended up a similar amount) ...

The rate converting from AUD to won at the moment is the best it has been in some time ... it is around $1 to 1,000 won (give or take a few cents) ... It is therefore not as good converting back into AUD from won (eg Late last year 1,000 won got me something like $1.30 Australian - At the moment I would get around $1) ... I have been lucky so far that I have not had any money to send back (for some bills I need to pay) but in a couple of weeks time I will be ...

I guess what I am trying to say in bringing money over is that it isn't worth stressing out about where it is best to do the conversion ... As you know from the Australian news the exchange rate of the Australian dollar at the moment is still relatively volatile against the US dollar and is relatively strong ... So you could even get a couple of cents difference just over a couple of days ... And that is not worth a lot ... You will probably end up paying more in fees than you will make in getting a particularly good exchange ...

And with a currently weakening won maybe you are better off leaving some of your money in Australian dollars until you need to use it .. Some predictions at the moment are that the won is likely to stay weak and maybe weaken further ...

Icicle