Monday and Back to Business

Welcome back for another week.

I want to extend my sympathies to the people who suffered due to this weekend's events in Japan.

In the next two weeks we will be looking at getting a car loan, a mortgage, and how to check your credit here in Korea.  I also want to look at the Capital Markets Consolidation Act and increasing efficiency in retail banking in Korea.

One of the difficulties foreigners face in Korea is that there is a lot of flexibility in the application of rules.  We are trained through our culture and legal systems to look to precedents.  So if my friend an E2 visa got a credit card, I should get one too.  In Korea precedents take a back seat to personal relationships.  So if your friend got a credit card on an E2 visa, your friend must have a better relationship than you.

This makes dealing with banking issues difficult.  Here are some rules that come to mind, feel free to add your own:

1. Be polite, one poor comment will make you an enemy for life;
2. Don't call racism, yes telling someone "You can't, you're foreign" is racist, "You can't because your visa expires in 4 weeks" is not racist but to some people, they mean the same thing, "You can't";
3. Even if the teller is racist, they can use the excuse you were suspicious, they are legally required to refuse service to and report suspicious people, I suggest you report the teller to the English helpline as the bank may notice a pattern if the only suspicious people the teller identifies are international customers and the bank may provide the teller with counselling, but;
4. Bank employees basically have tenure in this country.  Their union is strong and they believe that they will have a job forever, you cannot get them fired;
5. Charming the cute young teller who speaks great English to get what you want, won't help very much, the head teller will be watching to prevent you getting what the head teller doesn't think you deserve;
6. If you read this blog for a magical answer you will be disappointed, things can change quickly for example late last year a credit card company that had been good to international customers decided not to accept any new applications, and to reduce the credit limits for some international customers, only to start issuing cards to international customers one month later;

Anyway have a great week, I have a lot of research to do.  Feel free to forward your experiences to koreanbankingblog@gmail.com