Tuesday nite was the first day of my Korean classes at the ymca. I was supposed to pay 120,000w for the class plus 25,000w for the books. Also, I wanted to goto Daegu Station to buy the train tickets ahead of time for saturdays bullfighting festival. When I got downtown I went to an ATM machine from my bank but they were all out of order. I went down a few blocks to another branch, same error message on all the machines. I went to a third larger branch and all the machines out of order.

This was after 6pm so all the branches were closed. I decided to try a different bank as I had to be in korean class for 7pm so needed the cash. I went to a Wooribank branch and keyed in 50,000 withdrawal. My card came back with a receipt saying 50,000 but no cash. So i'm looking everwhere for where the cash was but there was none.

Then I called the tourist english helpline to see if they could tell me what to do. She told me to use the handset next to the atm. I had looked at it before but there were no buttons to dial. I read her the three hangul choices so she told me which one to press. The person did not speak good english and told me to call a number on the back of the handset. I called that and got a somewhat better english speaking person.

He confirmed the transaction had been cancelled and no money was taken out. After putting me back on hold a few times I tried to withdraw again with him on the phone. Same problem, the card and receipt came out but no cash. He put me on hold again but then my phone battery died. Great timing!. People, this is why my cell is always turned off so that I have it charged for emergencies!

Luckily, at that instant, an english speaking well dressed korean guy came over. He said he worked with the bank and was alerted to come over to help me. That must have been what the guy was doing when he kept putting me on hold. He told me the NH network is down and to try later. This means I cant do any debit transactions on my card either!

I had to be at class at 7 so decided to try later. They were doing registrations and payment so I told them about the NH problem and they said it was ok for today. During break I tried the bank again but the Atms were still down. After class, same problem. I took the bus home to check my local bank. Same problem. I went home and checked the website to see if the withdrawals had gone thru on my account. The website was dead. I tried googling to see if there was anything on the web about problems at NH but there wasnt.

Fed up, I went to bed. There was nothing I could do at this point and hopefully it will be fixed by morning. Wrong. I checked next morning and website was still dead. I walked over to the bank and met a teacher. I asked if he heard anything on the news about the NH network crashing, but he said no. We went to the bank and all the atms were dead with a message taped saying 'electrical problem'.

I went to school and decided to try again at lunch. This time when I went to the bank, all the staff were there but no customers. They were not letting anyone inside. They told me to come back tomorrow! I decided to walk to the other branch further down the main street. Same, all the staff, but not letting any customers in. There was an english speaking lady who said they dont know what the problem is, but that my money was ok.

I'm worrying at this point this bank might have collapsed! I have about $4000 in my account and only $5 in my wallet from last nite. Luckily I also had $5 on my bus card too so I was able to get home. I havent tried debit transactions so I dont know if I can buy anything either?

I just found this message thread so its nationwide
http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,8194 .0.html

When I asked my teacher about the bank collapsing she said that could never happen, it was impossible. Then I reminded her about a bank in Busan that collapsed in the last few years and she said 'oh yes'. Since there are thousands of account holders, hundreds of employees and businesses affected I'm not panicking yet. But it's frustrating only having $5 in my wallet to last me to the weekend. Luckily I have enough food in my fridge and we get meals at school so I'm ok till then.

It might have something to do with foreign hacking into Hyundai Capital Credit card so they shut down the whole system, but they wont say. Atms were still dead after school and web banking down when I got home. On the news it was top story. Apparently this is the third bank hit in recent months. NH is one of the largest banks in daegu and quite present in other towns as well so its unlikely something this big will be allowed to collapse on its own without government intervention.

Thursday morning web banking was up and my account balance was ok but the atms were still dead on the way to school. Then I went over to the branch after 10 when I had a spare lesson. The branch was open and people using atms. When I asked the guy if the were ok now he said atm cards were still dead. Luckily I had my bankbook with me and he said I can use that to withdraw. They have a magnetic strip so its like putting in your atm card and you put in your pin number.

Here is an article I found from The Korea Times yesterday
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/bi z/2011/04/123_85165.html

Today they are saying it was an outsourcing contractors fault
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/bi z/2011/04/123_85196.html

I've had no problems with NH till now. They are a reliable bank, english atms and web banking, convenient branches most places, friendly service. However, 36 hours later... lesson to be learnt, keep more cash on hand and keep transferring money home to lock it in.

I was teaching class this week the difference between 'dyed' and 'died'. I asked what 'died' was, a girl called out 'go to.. heaven'... I almost thought she said something else and cracked up infront of the whole class!! Off to bullfighting festival this weekend :)