It's all about the Won

I went to the bank yesterday to exchange some money. I foolishly assumed that they would provide me with any relevant information pertaining to the currency exchange process, and also that their bank policies would be in keeping with basic mathematical principles, like multiplication. Wrong on both counts.

The exchange rate is roughly .001, which means that one US Dollar equals approximately one thousand Korean Won. I was a bit surprised to see the exchange rate on my receipt, exactly .001. This isn't impossible, of course, but rather unlikely. Especially when the 2 Million Korean Won I asked for was costing me $2,195.14. Turns out their "policy" is to only write the first four digits of the exchange rate on currency exchange slips. This is my favorite kind of corporate policy, the kind that saves about 1 second of work, and guarantees customer confusion. As I'm on the phone later that day, I decide to look up the actual exchange rate, .000987167, which means I should be paying $1974.33.

Several phone calls later, I find out that the official exchange rates posted everywhere only apply to very large transfers, and that the bank pretty much makes up their own rate for small exchanges. I also find out that using my credit card overseas will only result in a 3% charge on top of the transfer, using the official exchange rate. The bank exchange was costing me about 10%.

I canceled the order, after several minutes spent explaining to the bank that simply exchanging back after the fact was not going to make me happy, as that would screw me out of twice as much money.

Moral of the story: Don't exchange currency unless it's absolutely necessary. I was planning to buy some fancy electronic toys when I got there (I don't get paid until after a month of work) but now I'm just going to bring enough money to eat and get around for a month. Also, upon further research, it turns out the exchanging money in banks in foreign countries generally gets you better rates anyway.