Korean Job Discussion Forums

[JerBear]

Back in April I availed myself of a service at KEB bank. You can buy a US Dollar money order (it's actually drawn on the Bank of New York) to pay bills or other debts in the USA. I used mine to pay the $100 or so that I owed the IRS. The cost is only 5000 won on top of whatever the exchange rate is.

Okay, well, I had to send $500 in November to a friend and I did the same thing. One problem: The post office lost the envelope. Well, you'd think that wouldn't be an issue since it's a money order and so can easily be refunded, right? WRONG!!!

When I told the bank what happened, the first thing they wanted was the receipt from the post office for the purchase of postage. Well, it would never occured to me to keep such a thing as you'd never, ever need it in the USA, so I didn't keep it. They said that I couldn't report it lost then, but could report it stolen. I started to fill out the necessary paperwork and they informed me that it would take 6 MONTHS from the time of my report before they could actually refund the money. Well, for the first time in my life, I was truly dumbfounded. They said that this is Korean government regulation and there's no way around it.

I decided to wait a few more weeks in case it finally did show up at its destinaton in the USA. It never did so I went today to complete the paperwork.

Well, in addition to a stolen report fee of 13,000 Won, there'll also be a 25,000 remittance fee once the money is finally refunded AND, since I won't be in Korea anymore by July (when the money is finally refunded), I have to pay the bank to make a wire transfer to me in the USA. I figure that once all is said and done, it may cost me upwards of $100 for simply making the mistake of buying a US Dollar money order.

Word of advice: If you need to pay a bill or other debt in the USA and are a US citizen, simply wire money from your Korean account to your US account and then mail off a personal check. It's a hell of a lot easier and cheaper to do a stop check on a lost check than it is to go through the quagmire I just went through. If you don't have a US account, you can open one online (I use WaMu - I know, they're now Chase Bank, but you can still use their excellent online services at www.wamu.com - I opened my account with them online after I'd arrived in Korea and paid the $1.00 using a prepaid debit card that I'd brought with me from the States). Wamu requires a minimum opening deposit of only $1.00 and you can even mail that in. You could alternately send a friend or family member down to their nearest branch with a dollar bill to do the same thing.

I figure if I dissuade even one person from buying a money order, all this typing will have been worth it.

Cheerz!

[Straphanger]

Uhhhh yeah. Don't be an idiot and your time here will go by much more smoothly.

If you need a USD money order, go on post like everybody else.

[JerBear]

[plynx]

[Draz]

[ChinaBoy]

[JerBear]

[Straphanger]

[japancube]

Thank you for the info is what people should have replied with. The OP was nice enough to take time out of their day so that others might not make the same mistake. Drives me crazy that many of the people on these forums just seem to enjoy insulting people as opposed to helping others which is what forums are about.

[Ginormousaurus]