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cdninkorea
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul
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 Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2010 5:35 am Post subject: Namdaemun Money Changers? |
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I was in Namdaemun market a while ago and noticed a bunch of elderly women sitting behind little tables with signs indicating they change money. I've heard they're illegal, but until I'd seen them I'd never given them much thought.
Are they illegal? Why? What's the benefit of getting money changed there as opposed to a bank or legal currency exchange? Etc... |
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cdninkorea
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2010 6:14 am Post subject: |
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| Really? 47 views and no one knows anything more than I do about the money changers in Namdaemun? |
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madoka
Joined: 27 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2010 8:52 am Post subject: Re: Namdaemun Money Changers? |
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| cdninkorea wrote: |
I was in Namdaemun market a while ago and noticed a bunch of elderly women sitting behind little tables with signs indicating they change money. I've heard they're illegal, but until I'd seen them I'd never given them much thought.
Are they illegal? Why? What's the benefit of getting money changed there as opposed to a bank or legal currency exchange? Etc... |
1. If they are illegal, then no one really cares. Who is going to bust an old grandma trying to scratch out a living anyways?
2. The main advantage to non-Koreans is that their exchange rates tend to be a little bit better than banks. Reality is that you would have to exchange several hundreds of dollars before you'd notice it and a few thousand if you are going to justify making a long trip out to Namdaemun. In addition to the rate advantage, I was told by Korean nationals that they would rather exchange money with grandma for privacy reasons. Apparently, the government likes to keep tabs of how much money is leaving Korea so banks will write into Korean passports how much was exchanged. |
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cdninkorea
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2010 4:25 pm Post subject: |
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A few years ago a branch of Kookmin Bank (KB*) wrote how much money I had exchanged in the back of my passport- a lot of trouble for a few hundred thousand won in yen for a trip to Japan. Do banks always do that to Korean citizens? That'd piss me off too.
I don't expect anyone to shut down the money changers , nor am I even saying they should. But I wonder what the risk is of counterfeit money? Also, I wonder how many different kinds of money they have... |
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Xuanzang
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Location: Sadang
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| Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2010 7:05 pm Post subject: |
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| I've used them to change money before. You can get a better exchange rate and cutout the commission fee from the banks. The problem is they don't always have bill varieties or copious amounts on hand. |
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victorology
Joined: 10 Sep 2007
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| Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2010 7:10 pm Post subject: |
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| I exchange money there and the big advantage is the better exchange rate. You will get around 15 won better per dollar there. If you're changing $1,000, it's only an extra 15,000 won in your pocket and may not be worth it but if you're exchanging $5 or $10,000, then the savings could be considerable. |
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