I am finishing my contract in March and I want to go traveling in Europe after. I happen to be going back to Toronto, Canada for my brothers wedding at the end of this month . I will come back to Korea in March and finish my contract. Which country is better to exchange money and in Korea where is the best place to buy Euros?
Thank you
Koreabridge Forums |
Re: Buying Euros in Korea or Canada
Korea.
Re: Buying Euros in Korea or Canada
If you are going to change cash, then you will get a better rate here in Korea at your local bank. Other countries don't want and can't use Korean won so their bank rates will be worse for you. Don't ever change money at an airport. Those buy/sell ranges can be 10 to 40 percent, depending on the currency. ridiculous.
However, you should avoid the bad local bank rates altogether and just get the international market rate (intrabank rate might be the correct terminology?). Just go to Europe, insert your international ATM card into the nearest ATM machine, and withdraw as much as you want. Instant international rate minus an atm fee minus the standard (1% or 3% ?) percentage which makes it a buy or sell rate.
If you don't have an international ATM card from your Korean bank, go apply for one. It's worth your 1-2 hour time. If you can't get one in Korea, consider sending all your money home to your home country bank, and then using your home country bank international ATM card. If you don't have one, go apply for one. You get the point.
*note, by "bank ATM cards" I do not mean credit cards (those are cash advances with lots of fees and interest)
Re: Buying Euros in Korea or Canada
Thank you so much. Your responses answer a lot of my questions and I will follow your suggestions. Although my first country is Iran and I don't know how much I can trust the banking plus the politics. So I will get some cash in hand. Cheers
Re: Buying Euros in Korea or Canada
When I travel I almost never bother to exchange money beforehand. As the person above mentionned, simply use a debit card in any ATMs and you will usually get charged a 5$ fee and get a pretty decent rate. Moreover, you don't wanna be carrying a whole bunch of Euros when travelling, especially not in Europe since it's easy to get robbed. Most debit cards work on foreign ATMs, you'll see at the back of it there might be the sign "Cirus" or "Plus". Any one of these usually works. In fact,the only country I had trouble withdrawing money this way was Korea.