Called transport cards, transportation cards, or even sometimes traffic cards, 교통 카드 (交通 카드, gyotong kadeu) are the norm. They will speed up your usage of public transportation and will provide free transfers between subways and buses, and buses with other buses, as long as the transfer is done within a time limitation of around an hour, which allows people to easily transfer to buses that don’t come often. They also give users a lower rate for riding public transit and can be used in taxis, convenience stores, toll roads, some vending machines, and some public pay phones.

Trying to understand who owns which subway line, or even which section of a specific subway line, and the operators of various bus lines, can be very confusing. Despite the large number of operators of public transportation systems used in Korea, they can all be used with a single transport card. The one known exception is the U Line in north-eastern Seoul as they did not have an agreement as of this writing. Embedded with an RFID chip, standalone cards and smaller versions the size of cell phone charms can be purchased in convenience stores, some subway stations, and other random stores. If you are planning to use public transit in Korea, they are well worth the money. Here are several versions, including a much older version on the bottom right.

They can also be combined with debit cards (may or may not available for international residents as it has changed several times in the past), credit cards, some university IDs if connected to the campus bank, can be made for special events (left image – Korea Transport Institute, website, Wikipedia), or with membership points and a calling card (right image).

The brand Cash Bee has also released several watches with an embedded transport card.

Image copyright Cash Bee, source.

The Korea Transport Institute has written a detailed book about the introduction of transport cards in Korea as part of their Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP) book series. If you are interested in reading it, the book is available as a PDF download here: KSP 5 Lessons from Korea’s Integrated Fare and Smart Card Ticket System.

If you are coming to Korea on vacation, there are several versions of transport cards for tourist that provide discounts at some tourist attractions, duty-free, accommodations, ski resorts, restaurants, museums, amusement parks, etc. Please see their official website for more information. The website is available in Korean, English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese.

T-money (티머니, phonetic spelling of T-money, website, introductory PDF, YouTube channel, Wikpedia) and Cash-bee (캐시비, phonetic spelling of Cash-bee, website) are competing companies both offering transport cards. They used to operate in different parts of Korea, with T-money focusing on the greater Seoul area and Cash-bee everywhere else. As the greater Seoul area is home to roughly half the population of Korea, these companies had a nearly 50-50 split of market share. While their cards initially only worked within their respective areas, today they can be used interchangeably through most of the nation. Cards can come empty or with an initial balance and both can be refilled up to a few hundred thousand won.

Each rider needs their own card, but there is an exception for riding a bus. When you board a bus and want to pay for several people with one card, do not scan your card. Tell the driver how many people. He will instruct you to wait a moment while he presses a special button to charge you for several riders. Once this is pressed, he’ll signal when you are free to scan your card. If you do not wait for his prompt, you will not be able to pay for multiple passengers.

You do not need to pull out your card to use it. Many people leave their card in the outermost card slot of their wallet or smartphone wallet case or sometimes place it directly behind their smartphone and enclose it with a case. The signal is strong enough to read through wallet thickness leather but if you have another RFID card nearby the reader might get confused and give an error message. If you are on a bus, the error message will be an audio recording saying 카드를 다시 대주세요 (kadeureul dasi daejuseyo), meaning you need to scan the card again and might need to remove it from your wallet for it to properly scan.

When you use one of these cards in a subway station, approach the entrance gates with the card in your right hand. Scan the machine to your right in order to pay for yourself. If you scan to your left, you’ll be paying for someone else to enter the system. This also means that person will have trouble exiting the system as their card never officially paid to enter.

Note that the gates to the right have a green arrow, which tells you these terminals are available and also telling where to walk once scanning your card. The next two machines have a symbol indicating you cannot enter. The green arrows also change to this once someone else on the other side scans their card, which means you cannot enter until they walk through. Some gates are dedicated entrance or exit only, others are first come first serve. At the far end is a metal gate which is either unlocked or becomes unlocked when a transport card is scanned. These are very helpful for those in a wheelchair or if traveling with luggage. They are also used by staff to bring large items through the gates.

If you are going to ride a bus, these are what the scanners look like. Just like in the subway, you’ll tap your card and wait for an audible confirmation of a female voice saying 감사합니다 (感謝합니다, gamsahamnida) to acknowledge successful payment.

Here is a point of sale machine at a convenience store. Reading the brands, they accept POP (shown next to the Korea Transport Institute card at the start of this page), T-Money and Cash Bee among others. Convenience stores frequently allow you to purchase and refill transport cards, along with accepting them as payment. Many taxis will also accept transport cards as a form of payment, but not all; it is advised you bring another form of payment, such as cash or a debit card.

If used in conjunction with a banking card, or if registered with the government, their usage can count towards your domestic spending which will help during the year-end tax settlement 연말정산 (年末精算, yeonmaljeongsan) which annually starts in mid-January and ends mid-February. We will later add contents on how to register your card. Do know, that if you register the card and then lose it, you will be unable to refund the value of the card. The transport card companies view the value stored on the cash to be equivalent to that of cash. Just as if your wallet is lost or stolen, your cash is gone and no one will replace it for you, if your card is lost or stolen the value that was on the card is gone and will not be refunded. However, if you have several cards and wish to combine their value, you can do this in a subway station. Bring all the cards and tell them which card you wish to transfer the value to.

Students up through high school can have their card modified so they pay the student fare, which is a reduced amount. When tapping one of these cards in a bus, the machine gives a double beep confirmation which tells the driver the rider successfully paid and the rider is also a student. For adult riders, there is a voice saying 감사합니다 (感謝합니다, gamsahamnida) to acknowledge successful payment.

Here is a notification near the entrance to a subway in Seoul which shows different codes for when someone taps their card.

일반 (일般, ilban) – a general card has been used and no message needs to be displayed

청소년 (靑少年, cheongsonyeon) – a card for an adolescent has been used

어린이 (eorini) – a card for a child has been used

경로 (敬老, gyeongno)– a card for a retirement aged user has been used

유공자 장애인 (有功者 障礙人, yugongja jangaein) – a card for military veterans or the handicapped has been used

Sometimes you scan the card but there is a numeric error message. Some stations post a list of error messages at the entrance to the paid area, but these can be difficult to find and the error message disappears rather quickly. Here is the list of error messages presented at the Seoul Subway. Click the image to see a larger version of the file.