About Korea Money Guide — independent money help for foreigners

Our principles

Where you actually get stuck

We focus on the moments foreigners actually get stuck: bank-app wording, account limits, rent deposits, salary numbers, KRW conversions, transfer quotes, and suspicious messages.

Built on experience, not backed by any institution

The explanations come from Korean bank-counter experience and financial-software work — but the site is independent and speaks for no bank, employer, or agency.

Tools plus plain-language guidance

Calculators and checklists help you grasp the scale, the wording, and what to check next. They don’t replace official sources, contracts, bank decisions, or professional advice.

Why this site exists

Managing money in Korea is hard mostly because the context is missing.

You might know the exchange rate but have no feel for whether a deposit in won is a lot. You might see a bank-app warning and not know what to ask. You might get a Korean message and not know whether to stop. This site turns those moments into plain explanations, calculators that give you a rough number, and a clear next step.

Who builds it

Korea Money Guide is written and built by one person with more than three years in Korean retail banking — time spent both serving customers at the branch counter and building financial software as a developer. That mix shapes the site: practical explanations from real customer-facing friction, and tools that keep their assumptions and limits in plain view. That experience helps explain the real problem — but it doesn’t make this site an authority. The site explains and organizes; it doesn’t make the official call.

From the bank counter

Shaped by watching where people actually get stuck — documents, account limits, app wording, verification, transfers, and the basic money questions.

From building financial software

The tools are built with a developer's eye for assumptions, edge cases, clear outputs, and safe limits.

Written in plain language

The aim isn’t to sound like a bank manual. It's to explain what you should understand, what to check next, and where you still need official confirmation.

What this site does not do →

Editorial standards

Useful before comprehensive

A page earns its place by helping you take the next practical step — what a Korean term means, what number to estimate, or what document or quote to check.

No product steering

We don’t recommend specific banks, cards, loans, insurers, tax choices, housing contracts, remittance providers, or investments.

Source and date awareness

Anything policy-sensitive or time-bound makes its date clear — especially when support programs, eligibility, fees, rates, or official rules can change.

Safe wording for financial topics

We avoid guarantees, false certainty where rules vary, and anything that reads like personalized financial, legal, or tax advice.

How our tools work

Public information first

Guides and updates get checked against public sources — official agencies, bank or provider pages, public notices, and the rules you can actually look up.

Experience for context, never insider information

The banking and software experience explains where things get stuck — it never publishes internal procedures, private systems, or customer data.

Visible assumptions

Every calculator shows what it includes, what it leaves out, and why the result is only a planning estimate.

What to check next

Every page points you to what to ask or verify next — with a bank, employer, landlord, provider, official channel, or professional.

How the tools work — six examples

Net salary calculator

Uses simplified planning logic to estimate take-home from the gross pay you enter. It can’t verify your employer's payroll math, tax result, or insurance contribution.

Remittance cost

Compares the quotes, fees, and rates you enter to show the true cost. It doesn’t recommend providers or promise live rates.

Jeonse vs wolse

Adds up the deposit, rent, and interest rate you enter to compare monthly cost. It doesn’t verify contract safety or affordability.

Open-account check

Maps your status answers to general setup guidance. It doesn’t decide whether a bank will open your account.

NHIS premium

Estimates a monthly premium from the income and enrollment type you enter. It doesn’t replace NHIS's official assessment.

Scam checker

Counts common warning signs and gives safety reminders. It can’t confirm a message is safe or make an official ruling.

What this can’t solve

Even careful explanations go out of date or miss something. Bank handling, support eligibility, housing contracts, taxes, payroll, exchange rates, transfer fees, and scam cases all depend on exact dates, documents, provider systems, local rules, and your own circumstances.

What this site does not do

Educational information only

Korea Money Guide explains general Korean money topics in plain language. It is not a substitute for professional financial, legal, tax, immigration, accounting, real-estate, banking, or security advice.

Estimates are not decisions

Calculators and checklists are planning aids. Results may vary by date, bank, employer, contract, provider, official rules, documents, residency status, and personal situation.

No official representation

This site does not represent any bank, employer, government office, landlord, payroll provider, card company, remittance provider, or financial institution.

No recommendations or guarantees

It doesn’t recommend specific financial products and doesn’t guarantee account opening, limit changes, loan approval, benefit eligibility, tax results, contract safety, exchange rates, or scam-case outcomes.

Before you act

Check official websites, apps, branches, notices, contracts, and provider quotes before acting.
For high-value transfers, rent deposits, loans, tax issues, public support, suspicious messages, or legal questions, ask an official channel or qualified professional.
If a message or call asks for money, IDs, passwords, certificates, OTPs, app installation, or remote control, pause and verify independently.

Terms of use

By using Korea Money Guide, you accept that the content and tools are for general educational planning only — they don’t replace professional advice.

Don’t treat any tool result as a final tax, rent, banking, or loan decision.
Use official sources, contracts, employer documents, and qualified professionals for your actual decisions.
The site links to external official and bank websites; those third parties have their own terms and privacy practices that we don’t control.

Privacy

Korea Money Guide is a static educational site. The calculators run in your browser — there’s no login, no account, and nothing asking you to upload personal financial documents.

Don't enter sensitive account numbers, resident registration numbers, passwords, or private documents into the site.
The calculators use no login, database, or external API. Nothing you type is stored or sent — it stays in your browser.
The site uses Google Analytics to understand aggregate page views — which pages are visited and roughly from where. The privacy policy has the details.

Read the full privacy policy →

Contact & corrections

This is where to reach us for corrections and questions. For anything urgent — banking, tax, legal, a scam, or housing — go straight to the relevant official source or a qualified professional.

Email contact@koreamoneyguide.com

For a correction, please include:

The page URL.
The sentence or section that may be outdated or unclear.
The public source you’re comparing it with, if available.

Please don’t send sensitive personal information

Please don’t send account numbers, ID numbers, passwords, OTPs, bank-app screenshots, or private contracts. We provide general educational information only and can’t review private account, contract, tax, legal, or immigration matters.