Arriving at Incheon Airport? Know These Two 24-Hour Exchange Counters First
After you land at Incheon International Airport, collect your bags, and step outside, you may need Korean won cash right away. But the arrival level — floor 1, where you emerge after immigration and baggage claim — has surprisingly few currency exchange counters, and most of them close by evening. A check of Incheon International Airport Corporation's official facility guide (airport.kr) found only two exchange counters on the arrival floor that stay open around the clock. Not knowing this, a traveler can waste 15 to 20 minutes walking up to the departure floor and back looking for a currency counter that never needed to be that hard to find.
At a glance: 2 24-hour exchange counters on the arrival floor (1F) — KB Kookmin Bank (near Gate B in the duty-free arrival corridor) and Woori Bank (near Exit 11 in the public arrival hall) · 24-hour Global ATMs near Exits 4, 6, 9 and 11 on the arrival floor, plus an ATM near the AREX train ticket machines on B1 (06:00-22:00) · Far more exchange counters and ATMs are concentrated on the departure floor (3F) · Incheon Airport general information line: 1577-2600.
Besides those two round-the-clock counters, the arrival floor has four more exchange desks: Hana Bank (near Exit 4, 06:00-22:00), KB Kookmin (near Exit 9, 06:00-22:00), Woori Bank (near Exit 6, 06:30-20:00), and a Hana Bank counter inside the baggage claim area itself (09:00-16:00 only). The catch is that four of the six close by 8 or 10 p.m., and one shuts as early as 4 p.m. If your flight lands late at night, you can easily wander from exit to exit before finding one still open.
If you simply need cash fast, an ATM beats an exchange counter. 'Global ATMs' that accept foreign-issued cards bearing the Visa, Mastercard, Plus or Cirrus logo let you withdraw won directly, and they run 24 hours near Exits 4, 6, 9 and 11 on the arrival floor, with another machine near the AREX airport-train ticket machines on the basement level. Try an ATM before an exchange counter and you can solve the cash problem without ever leaving the arrival floor. If every nearby exchange counter you find is already closed, your best move is the central escalator up to the departure floor (3F), where far more bank counters and ATMs operate, many of them 24 hours a day.