Fees & Certificates

[bktourer1]

What in general are the fees for 1st / 2nd Dans in TKD? My daughter has her 1st and we paid $250 and a cheap certificate from PC. If we paid $500 we would have received offical notice from Korea. Does this seem right? We can spend the other $250 to get registered but I feel this is too high? Her 2nd Dan will be next year and then our school wants another $250 if we don't want Korean registration and $500 if we do.

Can we apply cheaper directly to Korea and get registered and how can we do this? This seems to be am money making operation for our school.

Please advise

Ed

 

[TKDmel]

What in general are the fees for 1st / 2nd Dans in TKD? My daughter has her 1st and we paid $250 and a cheap certificate from PC. If we paid $500 we would have received offical notice from Korea. Does this seem right? We can spend the other $250 to get registered but I feel this is too high? Her 2nd Dan will be next year and then our school wants another $250 if we don't want Korean registration and $500 if we do.

Can we apply cheaper directly to Korea and get registered and how can we do this? This seems to be am money making operation for our school.

Please advise

Ed

Ed, I tested for my 1st dan for $250.00. The dan certificate came from the KKW and it was a beautiful certificate, and was framed as well. In 2 months I will test for my 2nd, and it will cost $300.00, also from the KKW. Seems to me that your school is "ripping" you off. The dan certificate and accompanying paperwork involved is actually about $90.00, but the extra cost is supposed to be for the other examiners to come to your school for the test to defray their costs. Frankly, my examiners are only a 2 hr. drive away so I'm not exactly thrilled by my test fee, but after having talked to other TKDists, it is about the norm, so I will put up with it. Is your daughter in TKD or some other martial art. Does not sound on the up and up to me. Just my opinion.

 

[exile]

Seems to me that your school is "ripping" you off... Does not sound on the up and up to me. Just my opinion.

I'll second this! And you can't get KKW certification directly; it has to go through a KKW affiliation involving your instructor/dojang operator.

Very fishy!

 

[Kacey]

At the very least, you need to get a breakdown of the exact costs and where the rest of the money is going. For example, if it costs $90 to get KKW certification, then your organization charging $100 total would not be out of line; charging $250 is excessive - unless the money is going to pay for the testing instructor's costs, but it sounds like the first $250 is going to that.

Then you need to decide if you need KKW certification. Here are some previous discussions on this issue, which seems to be perennial: here, here, here, and here, among others I found in the search. Good luck to you!

 

[IcemanSK]

I wouldn't go so far as to say you were ripped off, but I would say $250 & not getting a KKW seems high. $500 for a 1st Dan KKW is too much.

 

[terryl965]

Ok first off YES you are getting ripped off my opinion I do KKW certifibates for 90.00 the actual cost plus 10.00 for shipping the paperwork over and I get paid 75.00 for doing the test so 175.00 for first or second, now third is a little higher by the KKW so add about 20.00 more dollars.

You have to be a register 4th to apply directly and then can only go to thrid for certification purposes so you must understand is she a National level competitor if so then the KKW is worth the price but if not and the Olympics is not in her future then why pay for it.

Master Stoker

 

[cbursk]

As a point of comparison, at the school where I teach, for a long time now we stopped bothering with external organizations. If I am remembering correctly we charge $125 fee for any black belt rank testing. Included in that is our own organization's certificate and a new uniform.

 

[matt.m]

I know that in MSK our dan test is $120.00. I don't know what all it includes beyond the test and the embroidered belt. Doesn't matter I have a while for 3rd gup test. Somewhere in the September test range....I just took my 4th gup test in Dec.

 

[IcemanSK]

I was trying to figure out why I didn't seem to think $250 for a KKW 1st Dan certificate wasn't too bad. It's because that's what I paid for mine. But that was in 1985!

Like Kacey said, if there were instructor's fees (such as the cost of bringing in an outside instructor for the test) then it might be reasonable.
$500 for a 1st Dan KKW seems overboard to me.

 

[TKDmel]

I applaud Terry and any others who charge a reasonable testing fee of around $125.00 or so. I have a problem understanding why the fees at many schools are so far "out of whack" with what the KKW actually charges. I understand that if another master is needed from out of town, the fee may be more to offset their traveling and hotel expenses, but considering that now-a-days there is no need to bring in masters from Korea to oversee the testing as was the need in days long ago, one can only assume that someones bank account is doing rather well. At the last BB testing in my area, there were 18 candidates testing. At $250.00 per candidate, that comes to $4500.00. The master presiding over the test comes from a city just a 2 hr. drive away. So why the high fees? What is the justification? I have a 1st dan KKW certification that I was charged $250.00 for and that can never be taken away. I do need it since I compete and not having it would keep me out of many tournaments, but if I had my "druthers", and could find someone to test me, my subsiquent tests for 2nd dan on up, would be without certification through my current org. as I am already a black belt and I need no outrageous fee to "buy" my next dan. Just my $.02

 

[The Kidd]

I paid $250 for my 1st and 2nd Dan test.

 

[jfarnsworth]

To me all that money seems steep. Real steep if you ask me.

 

[bktourer1]

The only examiner we have is the school's Master who is 6th Dan.
We get a certificate printed on a PC and a new belt. If you want KKW certification its $500 & $250 if you don't.

 

[bktourer1]

1. My daughter is in TKD.
2. How do I get a certificate from KKW?
I wrote them and whoever wrote back either doesn't understand English or
seem to care.

 

[wade]

I just posted this at another location but here goes. If you are unhappy with your current style or system, think it charges too much money for their certificates and want to go up in rank and get the recognition you think you deserve, and trust me, if you do this you really will get the recognition you deserve, go to www.karate.org so to the link site and you too can become a master (BB rank is $100 per Dan) in (___________) a very short while.

bktourer1, if you want to get your daughter a KKW certificate and want her to still be able to train with her current master, my suggestion, suck it up, pay the fee and move on. If I had a student that went around me to get their rank after all the time and work I had put into them then they would be looking for another school.

 

[terryl965]

1. My daughter is in TKD.
2. How do I get a certificate from KKW?
I wrote them and whoever wrote back either doesn't understand English or
seem to care.

first off if you are not a 4th dan KKW certified instructor you can't plain and simple, it is not that they do not understand you are not important enough to them for them to answer your question go though your Master or find another place to train.
Sorry but that is the facts.

 

[wade]

Thank you terry, a much more tactful way to put it.

 

[terryl965]

Thank you terry, a much more tactful way to put it.

You are welcome wade

 

[Miles]

Thank you terry, a much more tactful way to put it.

Perhaps, and no offense to Terry, but your answer was more humorous Wade.

Terry posted the Kukkiwon's charges but many instructors add charges/fees-it is whatever they think the market will bear.

I charge $150 for 1st dan-if the student passes, he/she gets their Kukkiwon certificate, embroidered black belt and new black v-neck uniform. If they fail, they get a warm handshake and a chance to retest in 2 months.

Miles

 

[terryl965]

Perhaps, and no offense to Terry, but your answer was more humorous Wade.

Terry posted the Kukkiwon's charges but many instructors add charges/fees-it is whatever they think the market will bear.

I charge $150 for 1st dan-if the student passes, he/she gets their Kukkiwon certificate, embroidered black belt and new black v-neck uniform. If they fail, they get a warm handshake and a chance to retest in 2 months.

Miles

Yes Miles even I get something for testing them, I believe you chatge the least of many I know cudos to you.