Hong Kong Dollar to South Korean Won - Convert Compare Save
The total cost you are charged by your foreign exchange provider consists of the margin from the mid-rate offered plus any fixed or percentage fees.
These margins and fees vary significantly for International Money Transfers and Travel Money transactions as shown below.
Whenever you are researching a particular exchange rate you are actually interested in two currencies as exchange rates are the ratio between two currencies.
So it follows that if you are determining the best time to transact, in this case the HKD vs KRW, you should pay attention to the forecasts and trends for both Hong Kong Dollar and South Korean Won:
Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) outlook
The Hong Kong dollar has gained value in 2019 despite a serious escalation in US-China trade tensions, mainly because the US dollar, to which HKD is pegged, is attracting safe-haven inflows. By May-17, against a basket of important currencies, HKD was worth 2 percent more year-to-date, and was only 0.5 percent away from making a 2-year high.
HKD was doing particularly well against the Australian dollar. It was, at the time of writing, valued 18 percent higher than 2018 lows against AUD and needed only a further 2.3 percent to reach a 10-year high. Though HKD was meeting significant resistance in mid-May at the 5.4 per AUD level, a break of this could spark significant appreciation.
The South Korean won has been the worst-performing Asian currency in 2019.
At the time of writing, while most emerging Asian currencies were showing year-to-date gains against the dollar, the won had lost 1.8 percent, with weakness driven by falling exports and an alarming drop in South Korean inflation, which themselves drove expectations for an interest rate cut by the Bank of Korea, even though the BoK said in March that policy easing was not yet warranted.
In early April, at 1134 to the dollar, the won was trading near the weaker boundary of its trading range, which existed between 1110 and 1140 (this having contained most price action in the July-18 to April-19 period).
In April, TradingEconomics.com predicted that USD/KRW would rise to 1164 by April 2020. That's a level last seen in January 2017.
Why can't I just get the HKD/KRW market rate I see online or in the media?
The HKD/KRW mid-rate is the rate you will see quoted online or the news, nobody except the largest banks and businesses can get
exchange rates close to this mid-rate. It is actually just the theoretical half-way point (hence mid-rate) between
the last rate at which the HKD / KRW was traded (bought or sold) in the international markets.
Getting a good market rate is mainly about timing however the transaction margin
you end up being charged can be considerably reduced by around a few percent (of total amount being exchanged) for
travel money and possibly over 5% to 6% when sending money.
The exact potential savings depends on the currencies being exchanged and the amount you are transferring and if you are willing to shop around.
South Korea