Korean Job Discussion Forums

[D-Train]

About to get my first pay cheque and just wanted to know which bank is the cheapest in terms of rates charged. I've heard they can vary quite a bit. Anyone know??

[Harpeau]

Kookmin is about 13,000 won. Then CIBC takes even a larger chunk as well for "receiving it". Go figure!!
Just a thought, you might want to also do a search as there is stuff on this way back.

Anyone else?

[ilovebdt]

I use KB, Kookmin Bank, but last time around I had an account with KEB, the Korea Exchange Bank and I think their fee was less.

Another option would be to send your money Western Union and have a trusted friend or parent pick it up at the other end

[spliff]

Yet another alternative is to get an international ATM card from your bank (get two) and send one to your benefactor back home and simply deposit the cash in your account here in Korea and and have whoever back home withdraw it w/ the int card...no charge! Or a very nominal one.

[TJ]

Try looking at it this way ...... If you are like I was you presumably will be sending at least one million won each time. Bank fees will be around 15,000 won. That's an extremely small percentage of the amount being transferred. If you shop around you may save a couple of thousand won ... that's about US$2. Why worry about it?

To me it's far more important to be served by friendly, helpful, English speaking bank staff.

[ajgeddes]

I sent 5 million home today at �츮 bank and it cost me 25,000won, only to be charged 15,000 by CIBC back home. However, I didn't need my passport and had no problems, other than having to sit there for about 50 minutes to do it.

[plato's republic]

Unless you have to pay off student loans on a monthly basis, I'd recommend sending home up to 10,000,000Won after ten or eleven months of your contract and just withdrawing the rest a few days before you leave. That way you only pay the bank fee at both ends just once. Makes more sense to me.

[Homer]

I wire. My bank here charges me under 9000 won. My bank home charges me nothing (I negociated that with them).

As for waiting till the end to wire 10 large that is also another option. As for me, I am a long timer here so I prefer wiring a certain amount every month, investing another postion (here and abroad).

Also, waiting for the final month and wiring home a chunk might mean you lose out on the exchange rate if, by any bad luck the rate dips at that time.

Anyway, since I pay under 9000 won per wire and send over 2.5 everymonth I don't really care about the yearly total in wire fees...9 bucks per month to send over 3 grand is just no big deal.

[cazador83]

Has anybody tried doing it via PayPal?

I was thinking this... you have a PayPal account with your bank back home (for example, mine is in the USA). Then, you open another bank account in Korea and just send the money back to the USA PayPal account for "goods" or something. Will that work? I haven't tried it because I'm not yet in Korea.

[dogbert]

[Harpeau]

Kookmin bank just recently raised their fee up to 15,000 won per transfer.

[hari seldon]

[cazador83]

[cwemory]

Nonghyup charges 10,000�� per transfer.

[Hollywoodaction]