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AsiaESLbound
Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri
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 Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 4:01 am Post subject: Buy Euros in Korea with won? |
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| I know you can buy Thai baht and Hong Kong dollars here, but the rates in Korea were worse than at destination airport currency counters with local banks being even better. Being that the Euro is one of the major currencies, would it make sense to buy it here? The idea is to not use dollars since I don't work for dollars as to avoid the extra cost of changing currency twice as well as high commissions in Europe. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 7:15 am Post subject: Re: Buy Euros in Korea with won? |
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| AsiaESLbound wrote: |
| I know you can buy Thai baht and Hong Kong dollars here, but the rates in Korea were worse than at destination airport currency counters with local banks being even better. Being that the Euro is one of the major currencies, would it make sense to buy it here? The idea is to not use dollars since I don't work for dollars as to avoid the extra cost of changing currency twice as well as high commissions in Europe. |
You can buy EUROs at most forex counters in most banks in Korea.
They are a standard item in KEB branches with a forex counter.
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Jake_Kim
Joined: 27 Aug 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 7:27 am Post subject: |
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Let's use KEB for a benchmark.
When converting to/from KRW, bid-ask spread of USD cash is +/-1.75%, EUR cash is +/-2%. Plus there's the exchange fee per order, which is, fortunately for EUR, the same as USD and JPY at 1.5%. All the rest pays 3% or higher, including GBP.
Even if you must do cash, KRW/EUR isn't much worse than USD if you're buying EUR in Korea. |
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Epik_Teacher
Joined: 28 Apr 2010
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| Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 2:33 pm Post subject: |
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| I went to Spain in January, cashed about W4 million into Euro with no problem whatsoever. And I live in a very tiny town. |
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Lazio
Joined: 15 Dec 2010
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| Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 5:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Being that the Euro is one of the major currencies, would it make sense to buy it here? |
Yeah, it would make sense. Changing KRW in Europe can be very difficult and not widely available. And changing your money once (KRW-EUR) should be better than changing 2 times (KRW-USD-EUR). |
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AsiaESLbound
Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri
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| Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:34 am Post subject: |
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| Lazio wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Being that the Euro is one of the major currencies, would it make sense to buy it here? |
Yeah, it would make sense. Changing KRW in Europe can be very difficult and not widely available. And changing your money once (KRW-EUR) should be better than changing 2 times (KRW-USD-EUR). |
I thought so. Since the Euro is a major currency it wouldn't require US dollars to be traded if you don't get paid in dollars. When you buy Baht or other minor currency in Korea, you are buying and selling US dollars even though you see nothing about this so the rates are worse in Seoul for Baht than in Bangkok.
You want to avoid this expensive fact I quoted from Lonely Planet's page on Paris. "Bureaux de change charge anything between 6% and 13% plus �3 or �4 on cash transactions and 6% to just under 10% (plus �3) to change travellers cheques." |
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the ireland
Joined: 11 May 2008
Location: korea
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| Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 7:41 am Post subject: |
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do you have a bank account in a eurozone country? If you do, then just transfer your won to it. You get a better rate for remittance than you do for cash. (I know you pay a fee for remitting, but if you transfer enough money it works out mush easier)
I'm assuming you don't have a eurozone account and this is why you are asking the question.
Do you have any friends that have one, send it to theirs and collect it on the other sie? |
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AsiaESLbound
Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri
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| Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 8:47 pm Post subject: |
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| the ireland wrote: |
do you have a bank account in a eurozone country? If you do, then just transfer your won to it. You get a better rate for remittance than you do for cash. (I know you pay a fee for remitting, but if you transfer enough money it works out mush easier)
I'm assuming you don't have a eurozone account and this is why you are asking the question.
Do you have any friends that have one, send it to theirs and collect it on the other sie? |
Right, I don't have an account there, because I'm not an E.U. citizen with it being near impossible for Americans to set up there except when they are wealthy. Europe's still nice to travel if you like art, museums, and performing street buskers in historic city centers. I'll try to get Euros at the bank tomorrow. |
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AsiaESLbound
Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri
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| Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 10:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Yes, on 1000 Euros, I calculate you save a whopping $150 to 175 if you buy before going to Europe to avoid the high commissions and fees over there. It was 1,557,000 won for 1000 Euros today which is slightly less than $1400. This is the sell rate without any commissions and fees so it's good. You would be paying close to $1600 if buying it in Paris. The rate could get better in the future, but it's been quite consistent for a long time so I don't worry about that. |
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