Korea Taxi Overcharging 2026: How to Report It and Get a Refund — One Rider Was Charged ₩690,000

Bottom line: If a driver hands you a card terminal for an extra charge after a taxi or ride-hailing trip, photograph the receipt immediately, and if the number looks wrong, contact the app's support and your card issuer before you approve the payment. Even if your flight is close, count the zeros on the screen first.

If you didn't know: On June 30, 2026, a foreign tourist who took an Uber from Jayang-dong in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, to Incheon International Airport was charged 690,800 won (including 66,000 won in tolls) after the driver asked for a separate payment through the in-car terminal when the destination was changed. The normal fare for the same route, tolls included, is only around 70,000 won — about 620,000 won more than it should have been. The driver later said he mistakenly added an extra zero while entering the amount and refunded the money, but the tourist had already posted the receipt online, saying it cost as much as crossing into North Korea.

Ride-hailing apps usually charge the card on file automatically, but when a toll or a changed route isn't captured, drivers sometimes hand over the in-car terminal again on the spot. In that brief moment, a mistyped digit — or, rarely, a deliberately inflated amount — can slip through. After repeated complaints, Seoul began attaching QR-code reporting stickers inside taxis in June 2025; the sticker is now in 71,000 cabs. Receipts are also being redesigned because they didn't used to separate the late-night surcharge from toll charges, making it hard for foreign riders to judge whether a fare was fair. The right move can depend on where your card is from: cards issued in the US or Europe usually have well-established chargeback processes, so calling your card issuer first tends to be faster, while cards from China or Southeast Asia can take longer to dispute, so it's safer to raise the issue with both the driver and the platform on the spot.

Journey stage: Going home · Verified 2026-10-20 · Source YTN, Seoul Metropolitan Government