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Prepaid 4G SIM card in South Korea: how much does it cost? Where to buy it?

Where to buy a prepaid SIM card at Seoul airport (INCHEON)?

After passing through immigration and collecting your luggage, you will be in the arrival hall. You will find several booths offering prepaid 4G SIM cards and even the rental of wifi pockets

The rates are quite high, so take the time to compare prices to choose the offer that suits you best according to the length of your stay and the amount of data you want

Beyond the dedicated booths, go and see also in the convenience stores, that’s where I found the offer that suits me best

You should know that in Seoul, it is very easy to find free Wi-Fi hotspots, so you don’t necessarily need a lot of data

Where to buy a prepaid SIM card IN CITY?

Convenience stores such as CVS, 7-eleven or GS25 offer SIM cards. The advantage is that most of these stores are open 24 hours a day. Unfortunately, not all stores offer SIM cards. Try the stores in the most touristy corners (Myeong-dong for example)

How much does a prepaid SIM card cost in SOUTH KOREA?

Prices are quite high, at least for the offers that are easily accessible to tourists

Typically, prices vary according to the volume of data and the duration of the offer

As an example

  • Unlimited data for 5 days: 27,500 won
  • Unlimited data for 30 days: 71,500 won
  • 1GB to be used over 30 days: 34,900 won
  • 2 GB to be used over 30 days: 49,900 won.

The last two offers are the KT Mobile offers available in the convenience stores. These are the ones we have chosen

This offer allows you to receive and make calls, which isn’t necessarily useful because everyone in South Korea uses the messaging application Kakao Talk (the local WhatsApp)

You will find some examples of additional rates on the images below

Edict of June 14, 2018

After the 30 days of validity of our SIM, we returned to the same Seven Eleven in Myeongdong to buy the same SIM (1 GB of data over 30 days for 34,900 won). The seller told us that this offer no longer exists. He could only offer us a very expensive offer: 36 000 Wons for a SIM card valid for 7 days with unlimited data (reduced debit after 10 GB)

No idea if it’s temporary or not, but for a month, it becomes expensive..

If you stay more than 7 days, buy SIM cards at the airport.

 

What documents are requested?

No documents are required, however, you will need a copy of your passport to proceed with SIM activation

At the airport I could only pay in cash. In the city, we were able to pay by card

How to activate the SIM card?

The activation of the SIM card isn’t very easy

You must first connect to a website (and therefore have access to a wifi terminal, which is OK at the airport) to enter your details and upload a photo from your passport

Activation can take up to an hour and is only functional during opening hours (from 9am to 8pm on weekdays and from 10am to 8pm on weekends and holidays)

It’s quite surprising, I think there is a manual verification that the photo in your passport matches the data you entered

In my case, it was almost instantaneous. It took longer for Anh. You receive a confirmation email once the SIM is activated

At the same time, you can configure the APN, which as usual is easier on Android than on iPhone

Edit of June 14, 2018

With the new SIM card we bought, the validation procedure was much simpler and instantaneous (still needing the passport though)

In addition, there was no need to configure the APN

How to recharge your SIM card?

I don’t know if this is possible for all offers but in our case (KT Mobile) it is possible to top up the SIM in the convenience stores

However, it isn’t possible to extend the validity period of the SIM, which is a pity in a case like ours where we stay 50 days.

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