The Korea Times reports that banks see expatriates as an untapped gold mine.
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{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
Services for foreigners IN Korea is all well and good, but the real issue is being able to access MY money in a different country. I went to visit my family in Canada, and I had to carry almost 5 grand in cash because I couldn’t withdraw money from my account with my “International” ATM card (which says in extremely small print, right next to “International Card” and the Maestro logo Foreigners and non-residents are not allowed to use this card overseas)What’s the effing point of an international card that can’t be used internationally?
“tz”, from which bank did you get this “international” card?
From the way I’ve been treated when applying for a credit card, “gold mine” isn’t exactly the term I would use. I’m pretty sure they see me more as “vomiting leper with AIDS.”
I, and I expect tz, would like to know if anyone knows of a bank in Korea that allows foreigners to have an international debit card. Before Chohung closed its doors I could access my cash in Korea from any country I wanted. Now that Shinhan bought up Chohung I am constantly running out of cash overseas. I cut up my North American credit card as it was such a pain to make payments, but now I’m stuck asking my wife for money whenever we travel. Which is very annoying. We are leaving on another trip at the end of next month, and I’m switching banks before that, can anyone save me the leg work and tell me one that allows foreigners overseas access to their accounts?
As yes, and the credit cards offered to foreigners are glorified debit cards. You deposit a million one in a long term account at 3.5% interest. As long you maintain that you get a credit card of a million that charges 7% interest. Its a great deal! They lend your own money and let you pay interest on it! Wow!
I understand that if you have an F visa they actually give you a real credit card. Now that I have one I am disinclined to ask as I am disinclined to award these pricks with further business.
I got a couple of real credit cards…They aren’t much better than the glorified debit cards they normal give out to foreigners. They’ll freeze your bank account and cancel your credit card without warning. My bank once froze my account and canceled my card a couple of days before my pay because I didn’t have enough in my bank account to pay the bill. I was traveling overseas when that happened.
madar,
I got a real credit card and I’m on an E-2. It’s a Samsung card with a 5 million won limit and no deposit but interest is like 29% or something outrageous like that. They’ve got phone service in English too if you need it.
I’ve also got an actual international ATM card from Nonghyup but it’s about 5 years old. I’ve had troubles since then.
Yup, it’s a credit card…but you have to pay up right away if you’re a foreigner but it’s okay for Korean kids who have no income whatsoever to rack up millions of won on their credit card bills.
Christ, not another thread about the Expat and his damn credit card issues….
I have an F-2 visa and I bank at KB with same branch for at least 3 years now. I even go to the exact same teller every month because he’s the only one who speaks decent English and I send child support back to the homeland, so it’s pretty obvious I’m not some deadbeat with little money. Technically with my visa, wouldn’t I be considered a “resident”? or is that an F5 visa? because I keep having to get an exit visa, as well as inform immigration when I’ll be re-entering the country when I travel anywhere.
I’m not really interested in getting a credit card since that’s a whole other can of worms, just being able to spend the money I already have without having to carry around thousands of dollars in cash every time I leave the country.
I have an international debit card from Wooribank. I can use it at foreign ATM machines anywhere. If I want to use it to purchase something in a store, restaurant, etc., I have to call Wooribank before my trip and tell them what countries I’ll be in and where. Not a hassle at all, since they have English speakers on the phone and provide translation at all their branches.
I recommend Wooribank to any foreigner. As far as services go, they’ve always hooked me up with what I want/need. I’ve never wanted/needed a credit card though, so don’t know how that’s work out if I asked.
When I take out money from foreign ATM, I get a text message on my phone telling me how many USD I withdrew (regardless of the currency I’m withdrawing). So, I’m wondering exactly how that works.
netkim, how ironic of you complaining about “the expat’s” complaints. shush.
Actually nNetizen, I don’t care about the credit cards. I just want to access my bank account from an ATM overseas like I used to be able to do. Did someone pass a screw the foreigner law about this when my back was turned? Are the banks just getting greedy and want to make profits as you change all your money into foreign currency and change most of it back when you return? Anyone use CITI bank, does their overseas ATM work?
I heard a great story from years back, (15 plus), when there were caps on how much a foreigner could send overseas. A British friend of mine was paying off his visa in the UK. The banks here wouldn’t let him do it because he had over remitted. He went to the visa office in Korea to pay the bill. They called the UK visa office. UK said take the money and do an internal transfer, the Korean office said they couldn’t because he was over his remittance. He’s standing there with cash in hand with the UK saying they are canceling his card unless he pays and the local boys refusing to take the money. (Finally he had to borrow money from family to pay the card off in the UK. ) And I was hoping the 3rd world style banking days in Korea were over. Sigh.
Thanks cmm! Goodbye Shinhan, I’m going to our bank.
“When I take out money from foreign ATM, I get a text message on my phone telling me how many USD I withdrew (regardless of the currency I’m withdrawing). So, I’m wondering exactly how that works.”
Hopefully, you aren’t getting ripped off. What they sometimes do is convert the local currency in US dollars and then convert that into won on your bill (and the exchange rate they give you is awful). That raises your bill by as much as 10% in my experience.
Since with the credit cards here, its often difficult to actually get any credit, requiring a deposit for the amount of “credit” and debiting the amount used in full each month from the current account. I left KB because of this, they would only give me “credit” if I ggave them a full deposit for the “credit” allowance.
However, if you have no other choice then get one pay the deposit and use it at the ATM’s overseas rather than carrying the cash with you.
Since then I have found KEB give a good service, and gave me a credit limt, and extended repayments if I wanted. But with many of the banks it seems to depend on the branch, and the relationship with the staff there. Initially my KEB credit card and debit card were limited when I tried overseas, but with a bit of friendly persuasion both have been concerted to full overseas use are now usable in foreign ATMs. It also can help if your company has a relationship with the branch that can be used to persuade them to help.
Unfortunately, if you are temporary resident such as E-2, then you are less likley to get their co-operation, but if you’ve gone the deposit route its difficult for them to complain about flight risk on overseas use – so keep trying.
“can anyone save me the leg work and tell me one that allows foreigners overseas access to their accounts?”
KEB but caveats as above…
>>> So… Does This Mean I Can Get a Credit Card?
I can’t imagine you don’t have a card Robert, so I’ll assume you mean this on behalf of most foreigners here who haven’t figured it out. I takes some finagling but I just had to sit down in from of the teller and say “look, I’ve been been here X years, all my finances are here, all my money, my home, my family, my job, I dont even have any bank accounts in my home country anymore, now I’m going on a business trip next week and I need a card that will work overseas.” BAM the girl at KB says “well I can set you up with a credit card, or a check card that works overseas?”
Of course I had to lay down 보증금, and that amount would be my limit, but it works, it even acrues Korea Airline Skypass miles. If that doesn’t work, Shinhan will give a needy foreigner one. I know a Morrocan who just walked in and got one there, he says they didn’t even want the downpayment.
Actually “NetizenKim” does raise a very valid point and that is right now, quite a few major American banks are attempting to raise their banking fees and these are some of the same banks that have helped put the country into another economic disaster. American banks — minus many credit unions and some small banks — are notorious for gouging and over-charging as well as having an undue influence upon consumer legislation. Though Korean banks do have problems in addressing the needs of the foreign visitors that might be interested in using a Korean bank for more than exchanging money, I think there is a large body of anecdotes that support the notion that the larger American banks are far worse in service and charges (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/26/AR2009062604974_Comments.html).
I keep my money in Korean banks because of such and it is more convenient in my case. I can’t remember the last time an American bank gave me a complementary bottle of good wine or did not charge me for the slightest need!
HSBC allows you to withdraw your money anywhere. But who knows? Maybe HSBC Korea is just yet another Korean bank? My account is HK based, and I can withdraw in Korea – so I am expecting the reverse to be true, but again, who knows?
When I lived in Korea, I had a real credit card – LG Card – but it took me many years to get it (Hana Bank, where my wife was a client, refused to give me one, fuckers), and the only reason I could actually get one with LG Card is because of a deal EUCCK negotiated for their members. I jumped on the deal, and renewed the card as long as I stayed in Korea.
Where are you from? When I lived in Korea, this was the case mostly for citizens of countries Korea really wanted to make it hard for them, like India or Pakistan or the like…
R. Elgin,
That’s all fine and dandy, but the reciprocal ass-holery (yes, it’s a correct banking term) argument doesn’t fly very far when you remember that most of us (foreign residents of Korea) are not American.
“reciprocal ass-holery”
It’s no co-incidence to take a them from another thread, that in cockney rhyming slang “merchant” means wanker (merchant banker => wanker).
[For those who don't know how it works they normally rhyme with a couplet, then drop the second rhyming part in actual use - e.g. he's a right merchant (banker), or "let's have ruby (ruby murray = curry)"]
What did we learn at the Hole today?
We learned that if I dress up like Yonsama, I can make some extra pocket Won as a roach killer/errand boy for a spoiled agashi. I can then allow a crappy Korean bank charge me interest on the money I made via a foreigner-only credit card.
On the weekend, I can grab a foreigner-only taxi and take said agashi with me to a Kangnam couple-club. Once there, the Yonsama costume will have to come off, and I shall be outed as a “vomiting leper with AIDS” waegook,
From there I shall be eventually “LoneStarred” or “Hebei Starred” to my new foreigner-only jail cell in Cheonan to make new Russian and Chinese friends who also got slammed by ATM double currency conversions.
But it’s all good, because at least I won’t have to worry about the eventuality of working in a chain gang on Lee’s Grand Canal!
Why go anywhere else for your Korea news fix!
OK, that was hella funny.
Keyser Soze @24: Nice
“…you have to pay up right away if you’re a foreigner but it’s okay for Korean kids who have no income whatsoever to rack up millions of won on their credit card bills.”
Yeah, but how else would the ’sshis get attractive young women to work in the pink light districts here and in Koreatown massage parlors overseas (etc.)?
#26
They’ll never learn!
Listen up agashi’s. One minute you can be screaming “roach” to a boy-band clone on your LG chocolate phone, and the next minute: your pulling off your blouse in a DaBang!
And it’s all because you missed a payment on your plastic surgery!
Keyser,
I’m almost certain the correct name is the Lee Grande Canal.
Hope you’re satisfied Marmot, now you’ve got all our cedit card details….
the greatest Phising technique ever….
the greatest Phishing technique ever….
But HSBC is not a Korean bank. My question would be about Korean banks that are not based in Korea… for example: in Tokyo, there is a Standard Chartered bank (I think it’s SC, maybe Woori… I know it’s a Korean bank at any rate), and they give its customers an international ATM card. Now, if I open an account IN KOREA, I don’t get that card, but what if I open an account in Tokyo? It’s the same bank; do I get the card? Even though I live in Korea?
Or what if I already have an account (in Korea), but I went into the bank (Tokyo branch) and said I lost my card. Would the replacement card they give me be international, or because I live in Korea would they give me a hobbled card?
I was going to test the theory with my Japanese friend, but I ended up leaving before we could get over to the bank. I’ll have to try it next time I’m there.
Is KEB still a Korean bank? Who cares? You can open an account at HSBC Korea now, right? Same for Standard Chartered (the defunct 제일은행)? So these will probably give you a card that works both in Korea AND abroad…
As for opening an account in Japan or in Hong Kong, sans resident card, I wish you luck…
Don’t need a resident card in my second scenario.
Also, HSBC in Korea follows the Korea laws, not HSBC home office regs, so I wouldn’t bet on them giving you an int’l card.
re: HSBC – worth a try, I think. But then again it will be populated with Koreans anyway.
I had a credit card with Shinhan (originall LG) but I also used to work for LG, so that my have helped in getting it. I just cancelled it because of what one poster mentioned, that they froze it suddenly for a loan that was overdue at Kookmin Bank (I was in the process of renewing) despite me having barely paid off a large balance on that card the day prior. Idiots! The reason I can cancel easily is I also have a Woori Bank card. I got that after having gotten a sizable minus-bank account (a line of credit in essence) from Woori Bank. They also offer an international ATM card, but just because the one you have has the Plus symbol on it, doesn’t mean it is international. You have to go to the bank with a copy of your passport so they can register the account to allow you to withdraw overseas. Woori bank is very good in terms of helping out foreigners, but I also speak Korean, so maybe that helps too. I have been screwed in the past by SC Bank, Kookmin Bank, and the Nonghyup, so wouldn’t try there.
I do have an international withdraw card for KEB, and it works very well also. They generally are very nice to foreigners.
Finally, I am pissed as hell at Samsung card. I make 70K plus (in $ terms) in salary, but they refused my application for an AmEX Samsung Card because I am a foreigner (essentially, if you are a foreigner, you have to work for the government or a super huge Korean chaebol, or have equity in real estate of $100,000 plus before they lend to you. This is a company that very definitely treats you like a vomiting leper with AIDS (as do most banks and credit card companies here). But I will outsmart them. Just applied for an AmEx card back in the States, and then AmEx has a service where they allow you to transfer your credit card to the country you currently reside. That will force those Samsung commies to accept the AmEx. I swear I am going to call back and scream “In your face!” at whatever poor receptionist answers the phone at Samsung Card’s service center.
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