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Sector7G
Joined: 24 May 2008
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 Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 2:23 am Post subject: A Fact Some Don't Know About the Exchange Rate.......... |
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is that the rate your bank has posted on the wall is not etched in stone, and sometimes you can negotiate a better rate.
To be sure, most banks and exchange stores' rates are pretty close to each other, but some are better than others, as I am sure you have noticed. Banks are in competition with each other for your business.
Now I am not sure if this fact will help you much with your monthly transfer back home(but then again, it just might).
But I know first hand of an English guy who, at the end of his contract last year, wanted to change his 2.3 million won last month's pay and his 2.3 million won severance into Thai Baht, as he was moving back to Thailand. So he sat down with the manager of the local KEB bank that we all had been doing business with for the last year, and pretty much said, "What's the best you can do for me?" "Because if I don't change it here, I will change it somewhere else". After a few back and forths the manager gave him a better rate than what was posted. I think it amounted to at least a couple hundred dollars more than he would have gotten otherwise. Ok, maybe not a killing, but better he get that money than the bank. |
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joltaxt
Joined: 24 Oct 2009
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 2:34 am Post subject: |
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| good to know thanks! |
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victorology
Joined: 10 Sep 2007
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| Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 3:13 am Post subject: |
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The rate is definitely negotiable and it helps if you're exchanging larger amounts.
It definitely wouldn't have been in the hundreds of dollars for your friends transaction.
Let's say you manage to get 10 extra won per dollar and are exchanging $5,000. That's 50,000 won. Better than nothing but unless you're a really good customer for the bank, you probably won't even get 10 won/dollar. |
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Hightop
Joined: 11 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 4:01 am Post subject: |
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| This is true. You can get a discount. After going to the same bank and bank teller for a while she started to give me a discount. I'm not sure how it is worked out but it usually takes a few won off the price for example the other day the sending rate for NZD was 830 and she gave it to me for 823. On 5,000,000 won that is about 51 nzd more. $51 saving just for asking if there is a discount. It is worth it. |
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MrMr
Joined: 05 Sep 2006
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 6:48 am Post subject: A Fact Some Don't Know About the Exchange Rate.......... |
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Went to KB a few days ago and asked how much Canadian I would get for 10 mil won?
Ans: $8990 + 40,000W transfer fee
Went to Hana was quoted $9128 plus they gave me a discount (their term) so my rate was $9188 + transfer fee 28,000 won
Went to KEB They quoted $9125 and upped it to $9160 when I told them about Hana but said they couldn't go higher.
In the end i transferred 20 Mill won with Hana and ended up with more than $400.00 dollars than if I had used KB (I don't understand how the Hana Bank rate was higher than the exchange rate quoted on the internet that day. At KEb they told me that rate was impossible)
Anyway,It's certainly worth shopping around for rates and as the OP says negotiating. One more point is that the same is true when exchanging money at the airport Kiosks. On even a million won the rate can differ from 20 to 30 dollars from one bank's kiosk to the other. |
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lifeinkorea
Joined: 24 Jan 2009
Location: somewhere in China
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| Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 6:58 am Post subject: |
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I am waiting it out. I hope the exchange rate goes back to 1,000 won per dollar. It was better than that when I came here, and our salaries aren't any higher.
If not, I will spend it wisely here instead of sending money home now with more schooling. I would rather go home with that. |
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Cerberus
Joined: 29 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 7:11 am Post subject: |
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| lifeinkorea wrote: |
I am waiting it out. I hope the exchange rate goes back to 1,000 won per dollar. It was better than that when I came here, and our salaries aren't any higher.
If not, I will spend it wisely here instead of sending money home now with more schooling. I would rather go home with that. |
settle in for a LONG wait. Won't happen in 2010. Probably not in 2011. If you're lucky perhaps 2012.
Any bumps in the road for a global recovery etc and it's the Korean won that gets defecated on the most. Witness last week. Went from a hair's breath of 1100 to 1180. What other REAL currency moves almost 8% in the span of ONE week?
NONE - they don't exist... save for Korean won.
With the Zimbabwean dollar no longer around, the won can now compete with the Venezuelan bolivar as the most worthless currency around.
Since I expect some turbulence in global equity markets ahead, the won will probably be back above 1200 soon.
This makes the power that be happy. The govt and their chaebol buddies like a lower won because they can export things cheaper and a lower won at home means more excuses on their part for once again jacking up prices for Korean consumers and blaming it on the exchange rate. |
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Hightop
Joined: 11 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 7:39 am Post subject: Re: A Fact Some Don't Know About the Exchange Rate.......... |
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| MrMr wrote: |
| In the end i transferred 20 Mill won with Hana and ended up with more than $400.00 dollars than if I had used KB (I don't understand how the Hana Bank rate was higher than the exchange rate quoted on the internet that day. At KEb they told me that rate was impossible) |
Yeah I have used 4 different banks to transfer money back. Hana is the 4th and final one. Best rate, best service, at the Junggye branch. |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 2:56 am Post subject: |
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I always ask for a discount since I don't transfer money out often and thus it's a fairly large amount.
Has the law requiring you to always transfer money from the same bank during the same calendar year been changed? |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 3:13 am Post subject: |
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| Do you think they will give me a discount for exchanging CASH? Not a huge sum, some 3 million won... |
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placeshifter
Joined: 23 Jan 2010
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| Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 3:56 am Post subject: |
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| Cerberus wrote: |
| lifeinkorea wrote: |
I am waiting it out. I hope the exchange rate goes back to 1,000 won per dollar. It was better than that when I came here, and our salaries aren't any higher.
If not, I will spend it wisely here instead of sending money home now with more schooling. I would rather go home with that. |
settle in for a LONG wait. Won't happen in 2010. Probably not in 2011. If you're lucky perhaps 2012.
Any bumps in the road for a global recovery etc and it's the Korean won that gets defecated on the most. Witness last week. Went from a hair's breath of 1100 to 1180. What other REAL currency moves almost 8% in the span of ONE week?
NONE - they don't exist... save for Korean won.
With the Zimbabwean dollar no longer around, the won can now compete with the Venezuelan bolivar as the most worthless currency around.
Since I expect some turbulence in global equity markets ahead, the won will probably be back above 1200 soon.
This makes the power that be happy. The govt and their chaebol buddies like a lower won because they can export things cheaper and a lower won at home means more excuses on their part for once again jacking up prices for Korean consumers and blaming it on the exchange rate. |
Norwegian Kroner, Aussie dollar, New Zealand Dollar, South African Rand...all with volatility of over 10% in one month. But don't let facts get in the way of your hysteria. |
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kinerry
Joined: 01 Jun 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 6:32 am Post subject: |
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| everything in life is negotiable, what's new? |
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Pinished
Joined: 08 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 7:58 am Post subject: |
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| Uhhh, Namdaemun Market! Save yourself some time, unless you like shopping. |
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Sector7G
Joined: 24 May 2008
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| Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 2:31 pm Post subject: |
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| kinerry wrote: |
| everything in life is negotiable, what's new? |
You are right, of course. It's just easy to forget that sometimes when something seems "official". Those "official, etched in stone" looking terms are meant to intimidate one into thinking it's non-negotiable. |
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ThingsComeAround
Joined: 07 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 4:47 pm Post subject: |
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My bank teller at KB would always greet me and she was happy to give me a discounted rate (often I would change a little here and there)- too bad my branch closed and I didn't cash out a few Yen with Euros! It is almost as though the bank doesn't control the exchange, the teller (and how much they like you) does.  |
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