T-money & the Seoul subway: buy it, charge it, use it right

Updated August 2026 · 5 min read

T-money is the rechargeable card almost everyone in Korea taps to ride — subway, city bus, most taxis, and it works the same in Seoul, Busan, and pretty much anywhere else in the country. You don't need to plan a route in advance or buy a ticket per ride; you tap in, tap out, and the fare comes off the balance. It's the single most useful thing to have in your wallet for getting around. This page covers the card itself — for the map, station numbers, and exit picking, see our Seoul subway map & riding guide.

Step 1 — buy the card

Any CU, GS25, or 7-Eleven convenience store sells T-money cards over the counter, and subway stations have vending machines that sell them too. At Incheon Airport, Terminal 2 has GS25 and 7-Eleven stores that sell them; in Terminal 1, the CU stores don't carry them, so use the Transit Centre or a T-money vending machine near the Airport Railroad (AREX) gates instead.

The card itself costs a few thousand won and that cost isn't refundable — only the balance you load onto it is. Buying the blank card is a normal purchase, so a card works fine — but keep reading, because charging it is a different story.

Step 2 — charge it (충전)

Reloading — at a convenience store counter or a 충전기 (charging machine) inside a subway station — has traditionally been cash only, even at the same convenience store register that just took your card to sell you the T-money card itself: a top-up is routed through T-money's own system rather than the store's regular payment terminal, and that system historically didn't take cards, Korean or foreign. That's changing — Seoul Metro has rolled out newer kiosks at major stations on Lines 1–8 that accept international cards for T-money reloads alongside the Climate Card system — but coverage isn't everywhere yet, so bring won as a fallback. There's no cap on how many times you can recharge, and the balance never expires, so there's no need to guess your trip's transit costs and load it all at once.

Step 3 — the rule everyone forgets: tap out too

Tap the card both when you board and when you get off, or the system has no record of where you left and charges a distance penalty as if you'd ridden to the end of the line. For the full breakdown — transfer discounts, exit numbers, priority seats, first and last trains — see our guide to riding the Seoul subway.

Paying with your phone instead

Recent iPhones support T-money through Apple Pay's Express Transit mode, and most Android phones sold in Korea have an NFC transit chip built in. Setup requirements change with iOS and carrier updates often enough that we won't print exact steps here — check Apple's or your phone's current setup guide before you rely on it, and carry a physical card as a backup either way.

Getting the balance back before you fly home

Walk into any CU, GS25, or 7-Eleven and ask for a T-money refund. For balances under ₩20,000 they'll hand you the cash on the spot, minus a small service fee — you keep the physical card, only the balance is refunded. Larger amounts need the T-money Town customer center near Seoul Station. Since the balance never expires, refunding is optional — plenty of residents just keep the card for their next trip instead.