Korea ATM Withdrawal Fees 2026: How Much You Really Lose Taking Out ₩1,000,000

At an ATM next to a currency exchange booth in Seoul's Myeongdong, a traveler who just landed inserts a foreign card to withdraw 1,000,000 won and pauses at the on-screen warning: "A fee will be charged for this transaction." It's not obvious how much that fee is, or whether it's the only one.

At a glance: According to Wise, the global money-transfer company, an analysis of 9.7 million cash withdrawals made with Wise cards between February and July 2025 found that ATMs in South Korea charge an average fee of 5.80% of the amount withdrawn. That put Korea third-highest among the destinations surveyed, behind Vietnam (27.10%) and Indonesia (10.91%), and far above Thailand (2.5%), Japan (0.87%) or the UK (0.20%). In practice, withdrawing 1,000,000 won costs about 58,000 won in local ATM fees alone, on average.

That 5.80% is only the fee charged by Korea's ATM operator. Most travelers' bills carry another layer on top: the roughly 1% international service fee that Visa or Mastercard charges when a foreign card is processed, plus whatever foreign-transaction fee the issuing bank adds, typically 1% to 3% industry-wide. Combined, the real cost of pulling 1,000,000 won in cash can approach 90,000 won.

Multi-currency cards such as Wise or Revolut, which don't charge their own foreign-transaction fee, can eliminate that second layer. But the 5.80% Korean ATM fee applies regardless of which card is used, so the real advantage of these cards shows up more when paying directly at a shop or restaurant than when withdrawing cash.

The surest way to cut the cost is to withdraw less often. Many ATM fee structures include a flat per-transaction charge, so pulling 1,000,000 won in one go beats withdrawing 100,000 won ten times. And if the screen offers to charge in your home currency instead of Korean won, always decline it — that option, known as dynamic currency conversion (DCC), can quietly add another markup of up to around 10% on the exchange rate.

The arithmetic is simple in the end. Withdrawing 1,000,000 won in cash costs at least 58,000 won on average, and card-side fees can push that higher still. Paying the same amount directly by card, with a no-foreign-fee card, costs close to nothing extra. Unless cash is truly necessary, paying by card first and withdrawing larger sums less often is the simplest way for visitors to protect their travel budget.