Dollars and Wons

There are several different ways of bringing US dollars to Korea. You can bring hard cash, traveler’s checks, or wire transfer. At any rate, if you bring in more than $10,000 USD on you, then you need to declare it to customs when you land.

Hard cash
Cash is the easiest way to bring in money without any fees. But if it’s stolen, too bad.

Traveler’s Checks
Traveler’s checks are replaceable if they are lost or stolen. But, when you buy them, you have to pay a fee of 1% ~ 3% or so. And then, when you sell them in Korea, they charge you another fee because they have to mail it back to U.S. to get their money.

Wire transfer
Wire transfer is the safest and cheap way to bring in money. The only drawback is that you have to have an account already set up in Korea. You can come to Korea, open an account and have someone back in the states wire the money to your account. The wire transfer has a flat fee and it’s not based on the transaction amount. So, the more money you wire, the more money you save.


Currency Exchange

The worst place to sell your dollar and buy Korean Won is at the LAX currency exchange. They give you the least amount of KRW for the dollar. On top of that, they charge you a fee for exchanging currency. I’ve never seen this fee at Inchon Airport currency exchange or any other Korean banks that I’ve been to.

When you land at the Inchon Airport, you should sell your dollar and buy some KRW if you don’t have any. I’d say about $100 should be enough to get you going. Then you should sell your dollar at any local bank in Seoul. They give you more KRW than the Inchon Airport.

I opened a bank account at 우리(Woori) bank. From what I’m told, all the banks are pretty much the same in Korea. Just pick the one that has a branch that’s conveniently located for you. The only thing I needed to open a bank account was my passport and an address where I was staying. Yesterday, I sold some USD and this was the exchange rate at the 우리(Woori)bank.

To sell USD, you get KRW 999
To buy USD, you pay KRW 1,034

This means that the total spread for the bank is 35KRW per USD. The bank makes 17.5 KRW per each dollar transaction. I guess that means that you are losing 1.75% when you exchange currency. The spread is slightly different from bank to bank.

Look at the cute cat!

Hey, I found a picture of a cute cat!



Cute cat
Posted by Hello

How not to hail a cab in Korea.

Well, there I was… at the Samsung Plaza in Bundang at 8 PM. It was about 50F outside. I needed to go south to my cousin’s place where I am staying. I exited Samsung Plaza and went West towards a major road that runs North and South. I saw a whole bunch of cabs drive past me. Most of them were occupied. A couple of them were vacant, but they just drove past me. I’m a California guy and anything below 60F to me is freezing. So, there I was freezing my ass off for 10 minutes trying to hail a cab.

I’m thinking “The economy in Korea is not so good these days like last year. Last year there were empty cabs everywhere. Something is not right.” I’ve had it after 10 minutes of freezing and went back inside Samsung Plaza. After thawing my body for a few minutes, I exited the building to the South.

“What is this?” I thought. There’s a designated taxi waiting area with 5 cabs parked. There’s even a Samsung Plaza employee who opened the cab door for me as I walked to the cab with a dumbfounded look on my face.

I was relieved, but felt utterly stupid. “Oh, well. Live and learn.” I thought. When you are in a high traffic area and you need a cab, look for a designated taxi waiting area. That’s where all the empty cabs go instead of driving around looking for passengers.