Okay so the reason I wanted to talk about this was because I recently saw someone at the convinence store trying to buy a T-money and charge it and the worker was getting a little annoyed but I felt so bad because obviously the person was just traveling~ SO I thought I'd help prevent this for y'all!
Let's start with κ΅ν΅μΉ΄λ -- this is what people use for buses subways and you can technically even use it for a taxi! κ΅ν΅ means transportation and μΉ΄λ just means card! So if you guys have ever heard of a T-money card -- this is what we call it in Korean!!
BASICALLY, most Korean people actually just use their bank cards as their transportation cards these days BUT if you're a traveler I figured this would be useful information! First of all, these cards can be bought at any subway station or convinence store~ There are really cool ones with cute designs and I heard they just started releasing Keychains that double as a card!
Anyways, so the complicated part is that you can buy the card with a credit/debit card BUT you can't charge it like that. You need to have cash in order to top up or charge your card -- avoid making this mistake because the cashiers will not let you charge it with a card!
Additionally, some people don't know this but you can transfer within a certain amount of time and it will charge you the same amount as just taking one bus! This is why you need to scan your card when you are LEAVING the bus in Korea as well so that you don't get double charged!
Hope that helps!!!!!
