What the ... banking bullshit 2?!?!?

Then I told my niece about an incident when trying to transfer money home. In all my years in Korea I never had a problem wiring money home until a new guy started working at my bank in 2008. (By new guy I mean new to the bank. Not new to banking.) He had great English, but was a bit of a dick.

Up to that point I had been wiring money to my bank account in Canada every month for 7 years. They never needed to see my passport as long as I had my Alien Registration Card (ARC) with me. Without an ARC they would need your passport. Basically, they photocopy the picture page, or front of the card, to put with your paperwork. To keep track of how much money you send out of the country.

Well this guy seemed to want to make a name for himself or put the foreigner in his place. When I gave him my ARC he asked for my passport. I don't carry my passport with me. According to Immigration you do NOT need to carry or present your passport if you have a valid ARC. The bank should accept the ARC. Well, Mr. Attitude didn't agree with that. He started telling me that the LAW, funny how the banks always seem to fall back on this in the hopes it will scare the foreigner off, that they HAD to photocopy my passport picture page. It was THE LAW. He actually spent 10 minutes arguing with me about it. THEN he said that THIS time he would put it through but from now on I had to bring my passport.

At that point I told him to fuck off. If I believed him and it was THE LAW then he couldn't just "do it this time." Which means he was lying about it being THE LAW and my ARC was acceptable. The bank had never needed my passport before. Immigration said the ARC was good enough. There was NO LAW saying it had to be the passport. If he was going to try jerking me around I would go elsewhere, after going over his head.

For some strange reason he continued trying to argue about it with me. He went on about how it was illegal. Blah blah blah. I stood up telling him he was an asshole. At this point the bank guard, she is a combination guard and info person, came over to see what was wrong. He babbled at her in Korean. Her English isn't that good so I used my bad Korean to tell her the guy was an asshole and asked for the number for the bank manager.

At that point he started to change his tune. He realized I was going to be complaining over his head. I think he also realized he might be ... wrong. He started sputtering out excuses. It was a misunderstanding!!!! It was too late though, he had showed his ass.

I went to work and talked with my boss about what happened. He called the branch manager for me and told him what happened. I was right, the ARC was perfectly acceptable. The guy should have processed my transfer no problem. The manager apologized through my boss. I accepted, and had my boss tell him that the new guy needed a refresher on bank policies.

I kept banking there. Until this twat I had no problems transferring money, and had none after that. It was kind of funny when he was my teller again and had to put the money transfer through the PROPER way. I could have rubbed it in, part of me says I should have, but I didn't.

What the ... banking bullshit 1?!?!?

I was talking about living in Korea with one of my nieces and the subject of banking came up. She works for a bank. So, I told her about some of the trials and tribulations of being a foreigner doing banking in South Korea.

I banked with ShinHan Bank, and after the merge ChoHan Bank, for about 8 years. When I lived in YongAm-Dong I got both a credit card AND an international bank card. Something foreigners were saying that they could NOT get in Korea.

When I went to renew my credit card in 2006 I was told that it was against the law in Korea for banks to give credit cards to foreigners. Yes, they said it was ILLEGAL and I should not have been issued the credit card. Of course, that was just so much bullshit. It was bank policy, not the law. (There was a newspaper (Korean) article about this topic where the government said it was NOT illegal for foreigners to get credit cards or international bank cards. It was bank policy. The banks tried passing the blame.)

A year or so later I was home and tried to use my international bank card. It didn't work. When I got back to Korea I went to the bank to find out what was wrong. I was told that it was illegal to give international bank cards to foreigners. That struck me as strange considering I had been using it with no problem for 3-4 years. The teller's English wasn't all that good and I knew the manager's English was shit.

I went to work and got one of my co-workers to call the bank's customer service number and get me an English speaker. She talked to someone, who wanted to know the problem WITHOUT getting me an English speaker. The person just parroted the party line that it was against the law. My co-worker insisted that they either get an English speaker online, give me a number to call, or have one call me. 10 minutes later I was called.

I explained what happened to the person who called. Her English was ok and she seemed to understand the problem. Unfortunately she started parroting the party line. So, I told her that according to her government (I had a copy of the newspaper article then) that was a lie. It was not illegal to give a foreigner an international bank card. Then she gave me a new reason that had me laughing at her.

She told me that they couldn't issue international bank cards to foreigners because they have no way to properly track the money taken out abroad. They have no system able to accurately figure out amount withdrawn, exchange rates, and all that good stuff. Which means they would have no idea how much was really withdrawn.

That is when I started laughing at her. She seemed a bit taken aback. I could tell because she got quiet. Then she asked me what was wrong. I told her that I never realized South Korea was such a technologically backward country that it can't do what we have been doing in the West for over (at that time) 25 years. Her silence was deafening. Then she asked what I meant.

Well, I have had a bank card since 1985 with the Royal Bank that enables me to take money out anywhere in that world that allows for PLUS or INTERAC. I have used it in the US, Japan, China, Thailand, and even in South Korea. In fact I used at it at my CHB branch just the month before with no problems. Our banks have no problem figuring out how much REAL money is withdrawn, taking into account exchange rates and all that other stuff.

I told her that I assumed the South Korean banking system had access to the same modern technology that Western banks had. Then I apologized for assuming they were a modern, 1st world bank. I would never have expected them to be able to issue international banking cards if I knew their technology was so old, backwards, and 3rd World.

She stuttered something unintelligible. I thanked her for her time and hoped that one day her bank would modernize and become the equal of a Western bank. Then I hung up because I couldn't hold back laughing any longer.

Yes, I could have mentioned to her that they ARE able to track the money Korean's take out with international bank cards but why bother? If they are going to make up such pathetic excuses to deny a service nothing you say or do will get the douchebags to change. Not even their own government telling them it is ok to give the cards to foreigners.

I have heard that KB Star will issue the international bank card and credit card to foreigner but never checked it out. Also, I have heard many people complain about being told by a bank that something was the law just to get them to conform, shut up, or go away.