WISE, the #1 international money transfer service for sending New Zealand Dollars to South Korea
Living and working in New Zealand, I get paid in New Zealand dollars, but I often need to send my hard-earned New Zealand dollars back home. If you're still sending money through your bank's app or website, it's time to be WISE, not optional.
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.
[for 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.
[Time is more important than fees in money transfers].
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
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
If you're using WISE on a PC, go to the Websiteor, if you want to use it as a mobile app, you'll need to download the WISE app.
3) How to use WISE
We'll refer to the WISE website, but the process is the same if you're using the mobile app.
[1. Create a WISE account]
You can open a WISE account in your favorite currency by clicking the button labeled +OPEN on the homepage.
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.
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.
A zero-fee method is a bank transfer. While there are no fees, the downside is that it can take anywhere from a few hours to a day. Instead, the POLi system costs $2.36, but the advantage is that the transfer is instant.
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.
[Third. Send money from WISE account to Korean account].
You should now have $2000 in your WISE New Zealand Dollar account.
Simply enter the amount you want to send to South Korea, and we'll calculate the transfer fees, the exchange rate at the time, and show you how much money you'll receive in Korean won.
As I mentioned earlier, this is a timeline of how I went from my New Zealand bank account to my WISE account and then to my Korean account. It really took as little as 5 minutes, 10 minutes at the most.
I sent $2,000 New Zealand dollars, which cost me $13.86 (about 1200 KRW). When you see this, the fee will be deducted from the amount you want to send, so if you need to send an exact amount, please be generous with the fee.
This is how I received about $1.64 million in Korean money in almost 5 minutes at the exchange rate of 826.011 won at the time.
[One last thing. Enter recipient information].
On the WISE homepage, click on HOME, then CARD, then RECIPIENTS.
RECIPIENTS, and then select ADD RECIPIENTS. You can then select the currency of your choice, we're going to select Korean Won since we're sending to a Korean account, and then press Enter bank details.
You can then select the recipient as yourself, another person, and a business or charity. We'll assume that we're sending to myself, so I'll select myself. Now you can enter your banking information, as shown below.
New Zealand Dollars If the amount you are sending to South Korea is
This is a one-time verification, and you're free to send larger amounts in the future without verification.
Finalize
Today we're talking about sending New Zealand dollars to South Korea, and we've learned about WISE, a website and app that makes it simple, cheap, and fast.
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.
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