Sending money from Korea.

How I was going to send money home was a big concern for me when I moved to Korea. My income would be in won, while my debts would still be in dollars. How would I take care of my bills?

Well, I already had electronic banking and automatic bill paying set up for all my accounts, so it was just a matter of keeping the money flowing. There were two ways: wire transfers and dollar-denominated cashier's checks.

For the first six months, I chose to wire transfer. The fees were about $20, but it was the fastest and most secure way to do it. At that point, I noticed that the sent and received amounts were another $20 different. It turns out there was an intermediary bank in New York that was taking its cut as well.

That's when I switched banks and started doing cashier's checks. The fee was $8, and the postage for the envelope was another 50 cents; though it took a little longer (10 days instead of three), it wasn't as long as I'd expected because my home bank had a relationship with my Korean bank. Thumbs up!