As most countries nowadays, ATM is ubiquitous in Korea. Most commercial banks in Korea reduce their workforces and cost by reducing their teller and replace with ATM. You can found every bank branch embrace few ATM machines. You may found it in the middle of the street or inside subway station or convenience store, either.
Ironically, however, it isn’t easy to tell they accepts foreign cards. I had a research about whether bank ATMs are compartible with International ATM cards, but it comes to fruitless. If I had one from another countries I could try, but I’m not. Therefore I can’t assure that. In my research, Last trails about compatibilities with foreign cards are stopped in ’02 when just before 2002 FIFA World Cup held in Korea and Japan. This article say that the government ask retail bank to install International ATM in major tourist location. I’ll ask bank and update about their readiness as soon as possible. Please note most ATM supports English, Japanese, and Chinese translations.
In contrast, ATMs which isn’t installed by bank(ie. in convenience store, street, subway station) are comparably easy to disguise, because most machine have logo of International ATM networks like Cirrus or Plus. So try these one whether you’re not sure. In Korea, there has not been reported fake ATM which steal encoded information in your card, and since most machines are installed in manned stores, busy streets or crowded venue, it is relatively safe to use in everytime, only need minimum care just as your home.
You can’t try cashback from merchant. Note that using debit card isn’t commonplace.
November 30, 2008 at 2:48 am
[...] Cash has been almost replaced by those plastic one with its convenience and safety. I’ve told you about little detail about ATM card, and now I’m going to tell you about the another [...]