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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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 Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 9:30 pm Post subject: Central Database for Foreign Exchange... |
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I spread my banking around to two or three different banks to keep a lower profile, and because, frankly, I'm not comfortable with the way the Koreans track our banking activities.
For comparison, in Santiago, you can exchange money at any mall, or anywhere downtown as far east as the Las Condes neighborhood. No id necessary, it's a very simple, less-than-one-minute transaction. You get a receipt. Same thing in Brazil.
One of the Korean banks I use, the one I went to today, always asks for my passport. I say, "alien card," which I hand to them. They suck air through their teeth and shake their head "no." They bring a manager who says "passport, please." I go to plan B: "No passport...I don't have a passport." And I hold up my backpack as proof. They reluctantly photocopy my alien card, look at it and type new information into a computer, and a few minutes later, I'm out the door.
One thing is clear: it doesn't matter that I go to different banks, because, I strongly suspect, there is a central database that ties my alien registration number to my foreign currency exchanges.
I'm above board, no illegal activity, no unethical activity, just annoyed that Koreans are so watchful.
What's their issue? |
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chiaa
Joined: 23 Aug 2003
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 1:19 am Post subject: |
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As a business, every time I want to send money to a company outside of Korea the bank has to make a copy of the invoice I am paying.
This REALLY pisses me off as I don't want everyone know who I do buiness with and what deals I get through them... |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 1:36 am Post subject: |
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What's the issue? What do they think they are protecting?
We're small-time. We're no currency speculators. It's ridiculous.
My transaction today, the one I describe above: I traded US$100 for about $96,000 won. Dollars for won, people. Every dollar is a national security issue? |
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hellofaniceguy
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Location: On your computer screen!
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 1:57 am Post subject: |
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They want your passport because they want to stamp it with the amount you exchanged. Why? Is any reason valid in korea?
They enter your name into the "system" and track it that way...still....work smarter koreans...not harder. |
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ajuma
Joined: 18 Feb 2003
Location: Anywere but Seoul!!
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 6:49 am Post subject: |
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| Koreans have to do it too, if it makes you feel any better! |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 8:42 am Post subject: |
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It's not about making me feel any better...I want to know what the method is to their madness.
Why do they do it? Do they know why they're doing it? or do they just do it because they don't know what else to do? |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 9:00 am Post subject: |
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I think it's part of the campaign to force people to use 'real name' bank accounts. Until recently, ca. 1993, they could open accounts under a whole variety of fake names. It was legal. Now it isn't.
You are lucky you weren't here a few years ago. Then you couldn't send money anywhere except through the first bank you ever used to do it. My first boss opened my account in a bank half-way across town instead of the one within wallking distance. I sent money home through it. Later, when I took control of my account (to stop him from checking to see if I had any money so he could decide whether to pay me or not) it was a major hassle to change to a convenient bank. |
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Pyongshin Sangja
Joined: 20 Apr 2003
Location: I love baby!
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 9:13 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
It's not about making me feel any better...I want to know what the method is to their madness.
Why do they do it? Do they know why they're doing it? or do they just do it because they don't know what else to do? |
Koreans are very concerned about outflow of capital. In the newspapers, they regularly list yearly estimates of amounts of money spent overseas on study, tourism and business travel. These are seen, I suppose, as disloyal acts. Stay in Korea, eat kimchi, and get a goofy haircut. It's the law. |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 9:28 am Post subject: |
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| Gopher wrote: |
It's not about making me feel any better...I want to know what the method is to their madness.
Why do they do it? Do they know why they're doing it? or do they just do it because they don't know what else to do? |
I assume it's just routine, (theoretically) making sure nobody goes over the FX limit, etc. However, foreigners are bound to attract more attention and scrutiny no matter what they do, just because that's the way it goes in Korea.
On several occasions when I've attempted to send money out via some new and different procedure (new for me, but familiar enough to Koreans) I'm regularly met not with suspicion or alarm but, interestingly, with pity. "I'm so sorry, but we're not really allowed to do this. It is very umm... difficult for foreigners. Don't you have a Korean friend? One you'd trust to do this for you?" What? You mean Koreans can do this but I can't? "Oh sure, Koreans do this all the time." Several tellers and managers, different banks, over the course of a decade. "We're sorry.  Don't you have a Korean friend?" I eventually found ways around the roadblocks, and often it was a case of bankers not knowing their own FX rules.
| ajuma wrote: |
| Koreans have to do it too, if it makes you feel any better! |
heh... nice. Yeah, I just love hearing that. I know you're talking about a specific procedure, and that's probably true in that particular context. But it's going to make some of us go like  and like  .
Hey there, Ya-ta, you were here back in the day. Come on, brother, can ah get a witness?  And yes, I remember those pre-real name antics.
Guru: You're saying I can only remit from the same BRANCH (!) of the bank where I opened my account?
Teller: Sorry, customer. You must to do that.
Guru: But this is preposterous. What if I had opened my account on Cheju-do and then moved to Seoul? You're saying I'd have to fly down to Cheju every month to remit my money?
Teller: Why you say the Cheju Island? I not say you flying to the Cheju Island! You open account of our bank in this Seoul. Other (godforsaken) side of this Seoul. Not the Cheju Island. Why you making nonsense talk!?  |
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Pyongshin Sangja
Joined: 20 Apr 2003
Location: I love baby!
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 9:46 am Post subject: |
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Umm, I'm no economist but can anyone see a connection between accounts in fake names and, lessee, corruption?
I'm not surprised, but this is something I had never heard before. |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 9:51 am Post subject: |
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| Pyongshin Sangja wrote: |
Umm, I'm no economist but can anyone see a connection between accounts in fake names and, lessee, corruption?
I'm not surprised, but this is something I had never heard before. |
Sure, Ya-ta, myself and any others who were here then will all remember the tremendous fanfare surrounding the grand roll-out of the Real-Name System. (And some serious pains in the posterior for us who ALWAYS HAD real-name accounts to begin with.)
Has corruption disappeared? Ha! It's just gotten a little smarter. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 10:50 am Post subject: |
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Gawd it will be good to get on that plane...I'm just going to take my remaining won and exchange it at my own bank in California. No more dealing with Koreans and money. They're confused.
...a while back I sent a cashier's check home, through Korea Post express service. But when the ajoshi/supervisor saw me asking the attendant for an envelope, he got up from his desk, took my check out of my hand, and started with the emphatic "no." He took the check back to his desk, made a phone call, returned to me, handed the check back and pointed at the door, as in "you can go now."
Tried to say, I don't understand, and he kept pointing to the door.
In frustration, I left. Returned with an English-speaking Korean and tried again. The ajoshi explained that I was trying to send money, and he wouldn't let me, because he wasn't going to be responsible for it if someone stole it. I explained that this is not money but a cashier's check, with it's own serial number, so that if it's lost, I can cancel it and get a new one. He remained very skeptical, and after assuring him several times that if someone stole the check I would not blame him, he agreed to let me send my money to the destination I had chosen.... |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 2:32 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Umm, I'm no economist but can anyone see a connection between accounts in fake names and, lessee, corruption?
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There was a gap of only a couple of decades or so before the corruption angle was figured out. |
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ajuma
Joined: 18 Feb 2003
Location: Anywere but Seoul!!
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 7:31 pm Post subject: |
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Maybe it's because we're foreigners that many of us think that we're being "persecuted" when we try to do things here. Think about your home country (I'm using the States for my example). When you write or cash a check, you have to present ID, right? Do you feel you're being persecuted then? What ID do you use? Probably a drivers license, right? Well, to get a drivers license, you need to show a LOT of proof, such as SS# and birth certificate.
Our SS#s are the way the US government keeps track of US!
Just out of curiosity, has anyone in the States transfered money to another country? How difficult was the transaction? Did they ask for ID? |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 7:52 pm Post subject: |
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| ajuma wrote: |
Maybe it's because we're foreigners that many of us think that we're being "persecuted" when we try to do things here. Think about your home country (I'm using the States for my example). When you write or cash a check, you have to present ID, right? Do you feel you're being persecuted then? What ID do you use? Probably a drivers license, right? Well, to get a drivers license, you need to show a LOT of proof, such as SS# and birth certificate.
Our SS#s are the way the US government keeps track of US!
Just out of curiosity, has anyone in the States transfered money to another country? How difficult was the transaction? Did they ask for ID? |
We're not talking about applying for a drivers' license or showing an ID, and you know it. (By the way, you can opt to keep your SSN off your driver's license in most if not all States.)
But since you asked, at least when I'm living in the States, I mostly use my debit card for everything. No one asks for my ID, I just swipe it -- sometimes I need to enter a PIN or sign a charge slip, but that's about it. I use checks to pay phone bills, etc., and no one asks for ID through the mail. In the U.S., moreover my honest and honorable employer direct deposits my salary reliably every two weeks into my account. I think I'm not alone.
I have wired money from the States to Latin America, from my account -- that's apples and oranges, by the way, because I already had an account. So no, I didn't have to present any ID to do that. Each bank keeps its own record of each transaction, but there is no common database tracking our cumulative currency exchange transactions and wire transfers, maybe 9/11 changed that, but I doubt it. Banks and corporations like to keep proprietary information to themselves and not share with other banks and corporations. FBI or whoever has to do legwork to assemble the information if they need it.
Anway, this isn't about wiring money. It's about exchanging cash for cash (far under the $10K mark). In no other country besides Korea have I ever had to present a passport or an Alien card for "banking authorities" to keep track of each and every exchange. It's extremely central here. Any travel agency in Chile, for example, can and does exchange dollars for pesos and vice versa.
The overall difference, then, I think, is the centralized, hierarchichal, authoritarian attitude on top of a nationalistic paranoia that money is leaving the country. It's not persecution, as you have pointed out that they tend to treat each other the same way. But I have been frustrated at times that, as a foreigner, I have to have a Korean with me to enhance my credibility, in addition to the ID measures.
Last edited by Gopher on Fri Aug 05, 2005 9:27 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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