Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Taiwantroll]

Hello,

I am leaving soon and I do not have a bank account back home. Too much debt. I thought that I could open a bank account at Citibank here in Korea. Then my last month, pension and airfare reimbursement can be placed in that account without an international bank transfer fee and I can keep the money here in Korean funds until the exchange rate is reasonable enough to withdraw. Then I can just withdraw the amount from a Citibank in the US or Canada.

Will that work?

[Juregen]

The interest rate on your debt will pbbly be higher then the potential earnings you can make on a chance you are taking for an better exchange rate.

[greasypeanut]

citibank accounts in united states are valid in korea?

[air76]

You can't just set up an account at an international bank and then withdraw from that bank in another country. The only thing that you can do is to open an account in both countries at the same bank and then have lower costs on your international transfers. Even the banks that are set up for people who work/live in multiple countries need to open a separate account in every country they want to do business in.

Furthermore, the pension office must send the money to an account in your home country....but why can't you just have the money sent to a friend's or family member's account?

Surely you could set up an online savings only account in the US....try ingdirect.com

[RobertGR]

[bassexpander]

My wife had a Citibank account with little money in it. She was recently contacted about it, and given an International ATM card that has merely a $1 (or maybe it was $3) fee. She just mentioned it last night. She's Korean. Koreans are treated very differently in this regard.

[air76]

[quote="RobertGR"]
I've been looking into this. Citibank in some countries does give lower transfer rates to other Citibanks but apparently not in Korea. Citibank does appear to have a good online banking service.
[quote]

I contacted Citibank, and HSBC, and a couple other large international banks and they all pretty much have the same answer.

You are correct that with Citibank it greatly depends on what countries you are dealing with...there is a list of like 19 countries (mostly European and in the Americas) where there is a really good deal for making transfers and whatnot...not necessarily free, but I know that for example if you have an account in the US and in Mexico that you can do your own international transfers online for like up to $10,000.

Then there is a secondary list of countries that you get discounts on transfers but can't do it yourself online.

At any rate....I did the research primarily for Mexico/US transfers and Mexico/Korea transfers and I found that what you said is correct. There are no agreements with the Korean Citibank chains.

Quite often these international conglomerates may share the same name but are actually different companies entirely but merely under the same umbrella of a larger corporate entity. So the reason that you can't open an account in one country and take money out of that account in another country is because they are actually 2 different companies, whether or not they have the same name/logo on the door.

[alice123]

You can go to www.wamu.com and open an account online. You just need to put at least 1 dollar with a credit card.

[Taiwantroll]

So what does that mean?

What is my best option then, in simple English please?

[winterfall]

[quote="air76"][quote="RobertGR"]
I've been looking into this. Citibank in some countries does give lower transfer rates to other Citibanks but apparently not in Korea. Citibank does appear to have a good online banking service.

[ChinaBoy]

[winterfall]