Korean Job Discussion Forums

[CaliUSA]

Does anyone on this forum have a Wooribank account, and have you been successful in transferring money from the Wooribank account to a US bank account?

I find using the Wooribank website to be deeply frustrating. I set up an online account at the bank and they showed me how to use it, but it doesn't operate that way on my laptop at home. If I go to Wooribank's home page and click "Global Banking" at the top, I'm taken to a webpage that has all these cool-looking options, like "Overseas Remittance." But I can't use any of these options, because I am bombarded by pop-ups and security warnings -- "do you want to run this?," "do you want to install that?," "Microsoft is installing such-and-such, click yes or no," "Internet Explorer has prevented this site from installing an ActiveX control on your computer" -- and then I'm taken to an entirely different page that says "Wait!" and a bunch of things in Korean that I can't read (but the "Global Banking" is supposed to accommodate English speakers!). In short, I find the website impossible to use; I don't know if my login information works because I can't even get that far.

I am going to my Wooribank branch today to sort this out, although I have a feeling that what they'll pull up on *their* computers won't correspond to the experience I'm having at home. But anyway, if any Dave's users bank at Wooribank, do you have advice for using their online "Global Banking"?

My second question is, what are my options, overall, concerning money transfers? I'm going to have some money in the account in September. At that time, I'll be out of South Korea. Is transferring the money online the only option? For example, could I close the account through e-mail, or by sending a signed fax with my American bank account info? Maybe that would be easier than struggling with a user-unfriendly website.

Just trying to avoid a scenario in which I have a good chunk of money saved up, and need to fly all the way back to Korea to get it...

Thanks to anyone who can help.

[K1020]

I transfer money to Canada all the time with Woori. I set up an account transfer at the branch with my Canadian account number and bank info. Now I can transfer at a discount from the ATM. They gave me a special account number that I transfer to which routes it directly to my Canadian account.

Don't ask me about the online banking I have never figured that one out.

[Hootsmon]

I send money home from my local branch. I asked in there (with a guy who speaks great English) and he said the most convenient way, with the best rates, is in the bank itself.

If you want to set up your online banking to be able to do international transfers, I think you may need to set it up in the bank first. I assume you've set up the normal online banking already? Or maybe not if you're unfamiliar with all the pop-ups and programs you need to use it. Anyway, your best bet would be to go into your local branch and get everything set up.

If that doesn't work, I've heard KEB has a very easy option where a Korean account is set up for you that everything you transfer into it is automatically transferred to your outside-Korea (in your case, US) account. It has to be set up in the bank before you can use it, but it would be a solution to your problem if you can't get the Woori international internet banking set up.

[CaliUSA]

I should have been more clear in my original post, and put the last couple of sentences at the beginning. I've done two or three transfers, to my US account, within the Wooribank branch office. The key issue is what to do come September, when I'm out of the country. That's why I'm focused on the online issue. But maybe closing the account with some faxed documents is the better option. So I'm wondering if anyone has experience doing this--closing out/emptying out a Wooribank account from abroad, specifically the USA.

@K1020: Thank you for the ATM suggestion--maybe it will work at a foreign ATM, I'll ask today.

[hogwonguy1979]

You can arrange to have a specific amount sent automatically on a certian day. It takes a while to set up because it seems they dont understand what you want to do and I've been to a number of branches near Itaewon and they are all utterly clueless to it. They dont get why you dont want to use internet banking

I've do it every summer when I take off for a month or two. I would make sure you have their English help line number when you get there