One T-money Card Does It All — Skip It and Pay 100 Won More Every Subway Ride

Outside a ticket machine at a Seoul subway station, a foreign traveler pulling a suitcase struggles with the route map on the screen. Buying a single-journey transportation card means calculating the fare plus a 500-won deposit in cash for each destination, a process that is not easy for visitors unfamiliar with Korean. Even after passing through the turnstile, getting the deposit back means finding a separate refund machine inside the station every time you get off.

At a glance: basic T-money card 3,000 won; foreigner-only TMONEY TRAVEL CARD 4,000 won; TMONEY TRAVEL CARD+ 6,000 won (sold at convenience stores); single-journey transportation card deposit 500 won (refundable); subway base fare 1,550 won with a rechargeable card versus 1,650 won for a single-journey ticket (as adjusted June 28, 2025); available at convenience store chains such as CU, GS25 and 7-Eleven, subway station ticket machines, and the airport bus ticket counter at Incheon International Airport.

T-money is a prepaid transportation card used interchangeably on the subway, buses and taxis across the Seoul metropolitan area and most other Korean cities. Foreign travelers can buy a basic T-money card for 3,000 won at the airport or at city convenience stores; the foreigner-only TMONEY TRAVEL CARD, which adds tourist discounts, costs 4,000 won, and the TMONEY TRAVEL CARD+, which also includes prepaid payment functions, costs 6,000 won. The purchase price of the card itself is not refundable, but any remaining balance can be refunded minus a 500-won fee, up to 20,000 won at a convenience store or up to 50,000 won at a subway station.

There is also the option of buying a single-journey transportation card at a station machine every time you ride without a reusable card, but it costs more and takes more effort. A single-journey card requires paying the fare to your destination plus a 500-won deposit, and you only get the 500 won back by returning the card to a deposit-refund machine after you get off; if you forget, the deposit is simply lost. The fare itself is also higher: for the same distance, a rechargeable card costs 1,550 won while a single-journey ticket costs 1,650 won, meaning 100 won more every ride. Taking the subway just four times in a day with single-journey cards already costs 400 won more than using a card, and forgetting to return the deposit machine wipes out another 500 won per ride.

The bigger gap shows up at transfers. According to official Seoul city data, the integrated transfer discount for the capital region applies only when paying with a rechargeable transportation card: switching to another mode of transport within 30 minutes of getting off (60 minutes between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m.) up to four times means you do not have to pay the base fare again. A single-journey transportation card, however, is a subway-only ticket from the start, so it cannot be used on buses and is excluded from the transfer discount altogether. That means a foreign traveler who takes the subway on a single-journey card and then switches to a bus has to pay the full 1,500-won bus base fare again, with no transfer discount at all.

In the end, buying a single 3,000-won T-money card at a convenience store or subway station right after arriving at the airport saves the hassle of choosing a destination and tracking a deposit at a machine every single ride, while also being the surest way not to miss the transfer discount for the whole trip. Because the card works the same way on subways, buses and taxis nationwide and at many convenience stores, once purchased there is nothing more to manage until departure.