One of the first things you social medias addicted, compulsive smartphone user, blogger extraordinaires will want to do when stepping on Korean ground is to get a WiFi access. Sure, your guest house/dormitory/home stay will provide you with a connection, but once you’ll venture into the *shiver* outdoors… You’ll be alone in an urban jungle filled with foreign signs and a subway map that looks like rainbow spaghetti and no way to Instagram it. Another thing you’ll maybe want done quickly is opening a Korean bank account. If, like me, you didn’t bring a credit card nor cash, it’ll be pretty urgent (my shopping deprivation fits are fairly violent).
Rainbow spaghetti.
In this post, find not a complete guide but my humble experience about bank accounts, SIM cards and the restrictions you may face when trying to obtain those.
It’s easy to open a Korean bank account, get your money transferred on it and then retrieve cash. First, you need to go to your bank of choice and to their counters (sometimes upstairs). You can pick any among Citibank, Hana Bank, Shinhan Bank… I personally chose KEB Bank because they have experience in dealing with foreigners. Woori Bank is used by major universities and such, and has been recommended to me. I don’t really know about the others.
Take a queue ticket, wait for your number to appear on the screen and when you’re in front of the lovely counter lady, just ask for a “foreigner Korean bank account” (“foreigner” is optional, she’ll know, believe me). You will need to provide her with a valid passport and visa and a pin code of your choice for her to open a free account for you. Fill out the form she gives you (don’t forget that post-it note with your address in Korea written on it). You will then receive a bank book with your account number and they’ll write in there when you retrieve cash at the counter.
My bank book (I’m starting to see a pattern).
Easy peasy right? Now just ask your bank to transfer your gold ingots on there and get some cash at the counter! But wait. What about that square thing that goes with an account and can be used to win money at the public gambling machines? Well, to get a debit card, you will need…
✧･ﾟ:*The Alien Registration Card*:･ﾟ✧
The Holy Grail of foreigners (except it takes only 3 weeks to get it and you won’t need any knight’s assistance). Once you have this temporary ID card, go back to the bank counter and ask for a free debit card and a free online banking account. There you go, you can now present your card and nonchalantly e-sign* in any Korean store or restaurant.
*Debit card in South Korea work a bit differently than the European ones: you do have a pin code but when paying for your 4.5 kilos of Etude House makeup, you only need to sign on an electronic device.”OMG!!1″, you are probably softly gasping, “so not safe”! Apparently, here, nobody would steal a bank card and use it. You’ll see Koreans leaving their purse on the table for a few seconds without thinking twice all the time. Still, be careful. You can never be too paranoid.
Now, on to the cellphone number, plans and free WiFi. This is a bit trickier so bear with me.
It has recently become easy to get a Korean cellphone number without having to buy a new Korean cellphone (given that yours is unlocked). Chose an operator among Korea Telecom (KT/Olleh), LG U Plus and SK Telecom. I personally chose KT/Olleh because they have special English speaking counters for foreigners in their big stores. I will therefore depict the process to get a SIM card in a KT/Olleh store (it may differ in the other companies).
At the English speaking counter, wait for your number to appear on the screen. Again, you will need to show your visa and…
✧･ﾟ:*The Alien Registration Card*:･ﾟ✧
You guessed it. Actually, the ARC is only required for a post-paid plan. You can still get a pre-paid plan with your passport only. This is what I did and what I only will do because I had bad experience with post-paid plans (hello 100€ phone bill). I only need internet on my phone (everyone uses Kakaotalk anyway so unless you need to look professional just ditch the rest) but you can get calls, text messages and video calling rates.
Let’s get to the point. When registering your phone, you’ll have to pay for:
– the SIM card itself (around ₩5000) ;
– its usage period (₩5000/month, or ₩50.000/year) this keeps the card activated for a chosen amount of time ;
– the pre-paid plan (standard, light or medium) ;
– additional data plan (from ₩5500 for 100 MB to ₩38.500 for 4 GB) usage period of one month, then you must go back to the store to refill. You can have it set to refill automatically but for that you need… a Korean bank account. See how everything beautifully fits together?
You know what, just have the table.
But this is Korea, you must get something for free. That’s right, you can connect to the Olleh public WiFi whenever you feel like leeching it! It’s not 100% infallible but it does the trick and thanks to this addition I could pick a small data bundle (the 500MB one) that I only use when the WiFi is AWOL.
ninety degree east 