WISE: The #1 International Money Transfer Service for Sending New Zealand Dollars to Korea (Updated 2026)

Expats with more money to send home than they realize

Living and working in New Zealand means you'll be paid in New Zealand dollars, so it's no surprise that one of the first things many newcomers to the country do is find a place to live and open a New Zealand bank account.

If you've been living or immigrating to New Zealand for a long time, you may be thinking, "I'll just spend my New Zealand dollars in New Zealand, but I need to send money back to Korea.. Here's when to send New Zealand Dollars to South Korea

1) If you are sending New Zealand Dollars to South Korea

You live in New Zealand, you work in New Zealand, you spend New Zealand dollars, but you're going to need to send New Zealand dollars to South Korea more than you think, so you're going to need to have a certain amount of New Zealand dollars in your South Korean account to be prepared for things that might happen, whether it's intentional or unintentional.

2) Time is more important than fees when transferring money

Living in New Zealand, I think time is the most important thing when it comes to sending NZ dollars to South Korea. The WISEhas the fastest money transfer times of any bank in New Zealand.

There have been times when I've needed to have enough funds in my bank account for an immediate payment, but forgot to do so. With a New Zealand bank account, I think it took a few days.

At the time, I didn't know WISE existed, and I was in the early stages of immigrating to Korea, so I didn't know much about these international money transfer services.

At the time, my mindset was that the high fees were worth it and I wanted the transfer to go through quickly, and I still prioritize time over fees every time I send money.

WISE, the expat essentials

WISEis an international money transfer service that converts most currencies worldwide into the currency of the recipient country and sends the funds. For example, for me, this would be sending New Zealand dollars to South Korea.

We used to be called Transfer Wise, but we've cleanly changed our name to WISE, and we're now headquartered in London, UK, and listed on the London Stock Exchange.

The founders were inspired to start the company by the frustrations they experienced while working abroad and needing to send money back home (high bank fees and long transfer times).

1) WISE Advantages

WISE is available on the website and mobile app. WISE benefits include

2) Install and download WISE

To use WISE on a PC, simply access the website. To use it on a mobile device, you must download the WISE app.

For Google Play and the App Store respectively WISE Homepage Scroll down to the bottom to download it.

3) How to Send Money Overseas with WISE

I only recently found out myself, but with Wise, you can transfer New Zealand dollars to Korea without going through the first and second steps below.

Only those who will be using the Wise card should read from the beginning. Those who will only be sending money from New Zealand to Korea should Skip the first and second ones and go straight to the third. (Save time)

[1. Create a WISE account]

You can open a WISE account in your favorite currency by clicking the button labeled +OPEN on the homepage. A structured system that basically transfers money from overseas bank accounts to WISE accounts and then to Korean bank accountsfor example.

Select the Balance item to send and receive money.

Next, create an account in the currency of your choice. If you have a New Zealand bank account, you can choose New Zealand dollars. I have New Zealand Dollar, US Dollar, and Japanese Yen accounts in WISE.

Once this is done, you should see a button next to OPEN with NZD written on it, as shown in the first photo. (WISE Account Creation Success)

[Second. Send money from a New Zealand bank account to a WISE account].

Once you've created a WISE account in New Zealand, you should be able to click on it and see a screen like the one above. Now we're going to import money from our New Zealand bank to our WISE account to send to Korea.

[Glossary].

You want to import $2000 from your New Zealand bank account to your WISE account. Using the POLi payment system will incur a fee of NZD $2.36. You can choose how you want to pay the fee, in the photo above, select Change.

Feesis a bank transfer. There are no fees, but the downside is that it can take anywhere from a few hours to a day. Instead, you can use POLi Systemcosts $2.36, but the advantage is that the money is sent instantly.

Simply select your preferred fee format, continue, enter your New Zealand bank account number or customer number (found on your card), confirm, and you'll see your money quickly deposited into your WISE account.

Funds deposited into your Wise account can be used directly for payments when using your Wise Card. Of course, you can also transfer these funds to a Korean bank account, but there's really no need to incur additional fees to do so. (Updated in 2026)

[Third. Transferring funds from a New Zealand bank account to a Korean account]

1) Open the Wise app and scroll down until the graph appears.

First wise membership sign-upI'll proceed assuming you've already opened the Wise app. Scroll all the way down, and you'll see the exchange rate graph as shown below. From there, just press the Send button.

2) Creating a recipient

After clicking the Send button, you must decide who to send it to. If you're new to this, you probably don't have a recipient yet, so click the Add recipient button.

3) Select the currency to send

Those sending money from New Zealand to a Korean account should select Korean won (KRW).

4) Wise account holders vs. regular bank account holders

The person receiving the transfer through Wise could be someone who has signed up for Wise, or they could just be a regular bank account holder.

In our country, it seems there are more regular bank account holders than Wise subscribers, so I'll use that scenario as an example. Click on "Bank details." The recipient doesn't need to be a Wise subscriber.

I once sent it to my mother, but she is not a Wise subscriber.

5) Recipient Selection

When sending money via Wise, you can choose between My Account (Myself), Someone Else, or Business or Charity.

6) Enter recipient information

This is where you enter the recipient's information, whether it's yourself or someone else.

7) Transfer Amount New Zealand $1000

I entered my Korean bank account information and selected to send it to myself. I will transfer NZ$$1000 to Korea.

The New Zealand exchange rate is 832 won, and the fee for POLi payment is $11.04. After deducting the fee, the amount I receive is 823,051 won.

8) New Zealand $1000 Remittance Details

For example, this is the transfer details when sending NZ$1000 to Korea. The fee payment method shown above is POLi, but you can select Change to switch to other options. If you want to send money at the lowest cost, be sure to read the post below.

New Zealand Dollars If the amount you are sending to South Korea is Please note that you may be asked to verify your ID via SMS or email for the first time only when you receive a transfer of $95 or more.

This is a one-time verification, and you're free to send larger amounts in the future without verification.

Finalize

Today we're going to talk about sending New Zealand dollars to South Korea, and we're going to use a website and app that makes it very simple, cheap, and fast. WISEin this article.

Living in New Zealand, we meet so many different nationalities, especially immigrants from different countries, and like us, they were using WISE to send money back to their home countries.

There are a lot of international money transfer services with similar features to WISE these days, but WISE still seems to have a strong presence in the space.

If you're curious about WISE, a must-have website or app when living in New Zealand, use the link below. You won't regret it.