Yesterday, Toss Bank launched a new foreign currency account product. It shocked many people by declaring “currency exchange fees free for life,” and also introduced a function to use the existing Toss Bank check card to make payments directly from overseas with foreign currency bank account balances, making it possible to use foreign currency bank accounts from existing major financial institutions as well as Travellog, A new competitor has also been created for cards specializing in overseas payments, such as Travel Wallet.
As I am already a Toss Bank user and plan to study abroad during the year, there was no reason not to make one. Let’s make it right now.
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Account opening process
For Toss Bank users, when you turn on Toss, you will see a promotion for the launch of a foreign currency account in the Toss Bank menu at the top. Even if you missed it, if you go into the Toss Bank “Find Product” menu, you will see a new “Toss Bank Foreign Currency Account” button.
Before opening an account, read the product description carefully. It was buried in the promotion of a lifetime 0% currency exchange fee, but the fee exemption for overseas payments and ATM withdrawals was said to be a limited-time promotion that only lasts until July 31st.
However, Travellog is continuously extending the period of preferential currency exchange events, and Kakao Pay Securities has even converted its 300,000 won 5% interest rate event to a lifetime interest rate, so it seems unlikely that the promotional period for this product will continue to be extended as well. .
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After clicking Agree to the required items and clicking the Next button, the foreign currency account opening was completed in an instant.
A window immediately pops up asking if you want to use the check card overseas payment feature, but all you have to do here is verify your ID card and you’re done.
This means that if you are staying abroad with a Toss Bank check card, you can (probably) use your foreign currency card right away without having to go through the hassle of mobile phone authentication.
For your reference, no matter how much I searched through the product introduction and FAQ, there was no explanation about the “overseas ATM withdrawal limit” and “KRW refund fee”, so I directly inquired with the customer service center. As shown in the photo, the withdrawal limit is $5,000 per day / $10,000 per month, and KRW refund is not possible. They say it’s free.
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currency exchange process
When you enter Toss Bank after opening a foreign currency account, you can see that a new “Foreign currency held” menu has been created.
When you press the currency you want to exchange, there is a graph of the current exchange rate trend, a profit forecast depending on the time of foreign currency purchase (this seems to be a clear indication that it is a currency-tech specialized bank account), and at the bottom, there is a button to buy or sell foreign currency. Since the menu is quite intuitive, I will not demonstrate the process of trading foreign currency.
It currently only supports simple buying and selling of foreign currencies, but it is said that Toss Securities linkage and remittance functions will soon be launched. (There is no SWIFT code yet, so it is impossible to use it as an AdSense receiving account.)
If you go into the Toss Bank settings, you can also receive exchange rate notifications for the currency you are interested in. There are two ways to receive notifications: one is received every day at 10 am, and the other is received once a day when the set exchange rate is reached.
The exchange rate entered in the photo is just a hope. (Will the day ever come when it falls that low?)
If you don’t feel like getting an exchange rate notification and manually buying foreign currency at that time, there is also a “collect foreign currency” function that automatically buys a set amount of foreign currency at a set period when a certain exchange rate is reached.
If you go into the settings menu at the top right of the Toss Card management screen, you can see a function called “Automatic exchange payment for insufficient money.” This is literally a function that if you have loaded foreign currency and the balance in your foreign currency account is insufficient, it automatically exchanges the money from your Korean won account and makes the payment.
However, if I use this function, there is a possibility that I may unintentionally pay at an exchange rate that I do not want, so I think I will just turn it off and always check the balance before using the card.
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Comparison with Travellog and Travel Wallet
As of 2024.01
travel log
Travel Wallet
Toss foreign currency bank account check card
annual fee
free
free
free
card brand
Mastercard, UnionPay (all support contactless)
Visa (contactless support)
Mastercard (contactless support)
Banks that can be linked
Hana Bank, Hana Securities, Hana Savings Bank
Almost all banks and securities companies (open banking)
Toss Bank
Supported currencies
26 types
45 types
17 types
Preferential exchange rate
Always 100% preferential treatment: Dollar, yen, euro, pound and other currencies are provided with preferential exchange rates as an event, but the event period is continuously being extended.
Always 100% preferential treatment: 0.5%~2.5% for dollar, yen, Eurog, etc.
100% preferential treatment for all calls throughout life
Foreign currency payment fee
International brand fee (1%) + $0.5 exemption per transaction = Free
free
International brand fee (1%) + $0.5 exemption per transaction = Free until 2024.07.31 (extendable)
ATM withdrawal fee* Local ATM fee (surcharge) may apply
International brand fee (1%) + $3 exemption per transaction = Free
Basic Free 2% on withdrawals of $500 or more per month
International brand fee (1%) + $3 exemption per transaction = Free until 2024.07.31 (extendable)
Foreign currency payment limit
$5,000 (day) $10,000 (month)
?
50 million won (Sunday) 100 million won (Monday) Included in Toss Bank check card limit
ATM withdrawal limits
$6,000 (day)$10,000 (month)
$400 (one time) $1,000 (day) $2,000 (month)
$5,000 (Sunday) $10,000 (Monday)* Customer Center Response
holding limit
2 million won
2 million won Minimum recharge amount: $10
doesn’t exist
Currency exchange limit
$100,000 per year
$100,000 per year
Deposit/withdrawal of $300,000 each (monthly)
KRW refund fee
One%
doesn’t exist
None* Customer Center Response
At first glance, these products seem similar, but if you compare them closely, the pros and cons of each appear quite distinct.
If you are an existing Toss Bank or check card user, you can use the Toss Bank foreign currency account immediately with the same card you were using by simply verifying the terms and conditions and verifying your ID card. Also, unlike the other two, which only give 100% preferential treatment to certain currencies at all times, Toss has stated that it gives preferential treatment to all currencies at all times. However, it is very unsettling that the foreign currency payment fee and ATM withdrawal fee are said to be a limited-time promotion, and there is no information yet on which ATMs charge surcharges.
Travellog can be conveniently issued if you have a Hana Bank account, but if not, you need to open an account first. In addition, all currency exchange fees are still exempted, but with the exception of the four regular preferential currencies, there is no way to know when the event will end, and among the three cards, a separate fee is incurred when refunding to Korean Won. Still, the only advantage is that there is a UnionPay brand card. Recently, UnionPay has been aggressively offering 10% and 20% discounts on overseas QR payments, so it is useful when taking advantage of discounts.
In this comparison, Travel Wallet seems to be the card with the lowest merit as it has a low ATM withdrawal limit and incurs fees, but it also has quite a few unique advantages. First of all, since it is the only Visa brand, it can be used at merchants that do not accept Master or Union Pay (there are said to be some overseas), and because it is linked through open banking, there are no restrictions on the bank in use, and there are 45 types of supported currencies. The most. In addition, if you are only going to use it for direct online purchases, there is a small advantage that you can only issue a mobile card without having to wait for the physical card to be delivered.
Above all, these three seem similar when comparing only the “cards,” but the fundamental difference is that Travellog and Travel Wallet are “foreign currency prepaid cards,” while Toss foreign currency account is a “foreign currency account.” Therefore, the former has a balance upper limit of 2 million won, but the latter has no balance limit and can even receive depositor protection.
However, to put it on the other hand, unlike Travellog/Wallet, which was born as a card for overseas payments, Toss foreign currency account is mainly about foreign currency buying and selling, and foreign currency payment by card feels like it is just a “secondary function”. It is unclear whether the three cards can completely replace each other. First of all, I think we will have to wait until the end of July when the promotion ends.
Source: https://hexlog.tistory.com/210 [0187:Tistory]