Foreign Cards, Cash and ATMs in Korea

Cards, cash, and contactless

Cards are accepted almost everywhere - convenience stores, cafés, taxis, markets, even street stalls more often than you would think. Contactless and mobile pay are normal. Foreign Visa and Mastercard generally work, though the odd machine balks at a foreign card, and a handful of places have gone card-only. One exception worth knowing: subway and bus gates run on a separate Tmoney transit card, not your contactless credit card - grab one on day one.

So carry a bit of cash as backup - for a small local eatery, a temple, or a market vendor who would rather not deal with a card. You will not need much. For a feel of what everyday things cost, see What Things Cost, and weigh some cash into your overall trip budget so you are not guessing.

Exchanging money and ATMs

Airport exchange counters are convenient and priced like it - fine for a first bit of cash, poor for a big swap. Downtown exchange booths, the ones around Myeongdong especially, tend to give a noticeably better rate. The easy alternative is to skip cash exchange and withdraw won straight from an ATM.

Not every ATM takes foreign cards, so look for ones marked "Global" - common at convenience stores, banks, and stations - which accept overseas cards and switch to English. Check what your home bank charges per withdrawal so the fees do not sneak up on you.

How the refund works, and who can claim it

What comes back is VAT, and only non-residents get it. There are two tests here, and the second one catches people out: six months or more in the country and you are out, and holding a job here disqualifies you from day one however short the trip. A two-week holiday clears both without trouble.

The floor is 15,000 won on a single receipt, tax included. Those last two words settle more arguments than the rest of the rule - the number to measure is the one on the tag, not a pre-VAT figure hiding underneath it. A receipt reading 15,000 won qualifies exactly as it looks.

From there it splits, and the split is worth caring about. The shop either takes the tax off at the till when you hand over your passport, or gives you a receipt to claim on later. Aim for the first. It ends the matter in the shop, and departure day is not when anyone has patience for paperwork. Either way, the goods have to leave the country with you.

The ceilings on an immediate refund, and the scheme it gets confused with

The immediate refund runs into two ceilings, counted in completely different ways. One looks at the purchase in front of you and stops just under 1,000,000 won. The other adds up everything refunded this way since the day you landed, and stops at 5,000,000 won. Both figures include tax. Reaching either does not stop the sale - the shop simply cannot take the tax off any more, and that receipt goes to the airport with the rest.

Downtown refund desks are a separate scheme on a separate ceiling, so adding the two figures together gives you a number that exists nowhere. Then there is the deadline nobody thinks about: whatever you bought has to physically leave Korea within three months of the purchase date. Leave something behind past that window and your later purchases lose the immediate route.

Claiming at Incheon Airport

Kiosks in both terminals run around the clock. That matters if you are flying out at dawn, because the staffed counters keep hours: 07:00 to 22:00 in Terminal 1, 07:00 to 21:30 in Terminal 2, both on the third floor inside the departure area. In Terminal 1, look near gate 28; in Terminal 2 the refund desks are signposted from the gates, so follow those. Apart from that half hour, the terminals work the same way.

There is no published won figure that triggers a customs inspection, whatever a forum thread tells you. The kiosk decides. Either the claim finishes on the screen, or it tells you an officer wants to see the goods - and at that point you need them within reach. Hence the case for keeping refund purchases in hand luggage: no bag to chase, no second crossing of the terminal.

Some things are too big or too liquid for the cabin, and then the order matters - not the order most people assume. The part to get right is speaking up at check-in, before the bag goes down the belt. Everything else follows from that, and none of it starts with a trip to the customs desk.

Carrying cash through customs

Cash is counted apart from everything else, and it is counted as one sum: foreign notes, Korean won notes and cashier's cheques added together. Past US$10,000 in total, you declare. At or under it, nothing to do. Splitting the money across two currencies changes none of that.

Skipping the declaration is not a fee-sized mistake, and how big a mistake it is depends on the sum. Once the undeclared amount passes US$30,000 it turns criminal, punishable by up to a year in prison or a fine of up to 100 million won; under that line it is an administrative penalty of up to 50 million won. The quieter problem is timing: the certificate is issued at the border and nowhere else, and once you are through immigration it cannot be issued at all. People tend to find that out on the way back out, holding money they can no longer account for.

Goods are a separate calculation at the same desk, on separate allowances. Travel Essentials has those figures, and what declaring costs once you go over one.

Tipping and service charges

Tipping simply is not part of the culture in Korea. Restaurants, taxis, cafés, hotels - the price is the price, and nobody is waiting on a tip or offended by its absence. Some upscale hotels and restaurants add a service charge to the bill, which already covers it. Leaving extra is not expected, and it can even puzzle staff, so relax and pay what is asked.