Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sigmundsmith]

We all know how ridiculously difficult it is for E-2 visa holders to get Korean credit cards (I know that public school and university teachers can get one through Samsung)

Was curious as to weather other visa holders (e.g. those married to koreans) have any difficulties getting Korean credit cards - are you still viewed as alien? Does your spouse have to co-sign for your credit card? Do you have to put down a deposit (10,000,000won) to secure a credit card?

Or are you processed like a normal person (Korean) with none of the above abstacles to get your credit cards?

[justaguy]

F2 holders are not Korean but you are much less alien than an E2 holder.

Get you spouse to co sign it for you. No deposit necessary and they should give you a real card.

[Jack Meiov]

a credit card? I can't even get a phone

[G-man]

I got a KB card, no deposit, but it expires 1 month before my F4 expires. They say they'll renew it when I show my visa extension.
I guess I'm going to check out the Korea Exchange Bank with deposit.

[victorology]

I am a F-4 visa holder who is self-employed. I have an unsecured credit card from Hana bank.

They wanted to see "financial viability" first so I opened up an MMF account and after 90 days passed, they issued me a credit card. An MMF is an interest bearing account but it differs from a CD because you can take your money out at any time. I closed the MMF but still have the credit card. They basically asked me what I wanted my limit to be and gave it to me.

[Pooty]

I'm soon to be (3 weeks) an F5 visa holder. I got a Korean credit card with a ten million won limit after I started working for my company two years ago (I was on an F2-1 visa). Shinan bank.


On another note. We had an Indian engineer working for us on a one year contract. He had an E7 visa and he stiffed the credit card company for 2 million won. Stiffed the phone company for 500K won.

People like that give us all a bad name. No wonder they treat us the way they do.

[CeleryMan]

I wonder if Immigration can legally detain Indian man for defaulting on his payments? Looks like he'll never be able to return to Korea? All for a measly 2,500,000 KRW? I suppose it's big money relative to Rupee?

[Pooty]

Well he's working for Google now, in Switzerland I think...

[DaeSung]

I'm an F-2 visa holder, and I've got an unsecured Shinhan(old LG) credit card. They pretty much said I could set the limit at what I wanted to. Since I'm not really a big fan of going into debt, the limit is low.

Funny thing is the card and everything is in my name and my Korean wife does not have any other cards... (that I know of). I've used it overseas many times, always get strange looks when I'm in the states... what the heck is an LG card?... anyhow works fine.

I did have to fight with the credit card company to set it up... idiots, they did the same thing everyone says they do. They said I was a foreigner and couldn't get a card...

Long story short, I had to get a company card and said if you can make a company card linked to my bank account then there seems to be no reason as to why you can't make me a regular card linked to my bank account.

Turned out okay, been using LG (now Shinhan) for the last 3 years with no real problems.

That thing about leaving with out paying is total crap... those people are scum... who ever they are. Makes the rest of us look bad.

[Xuanzang]

[ChinaBoy]

I really don't understand what the big fuss is about Korean credit cards. All my cards work fine here and none of them are Korean.

Then when you decide to leave, you don't have a large debt in another country that you have to pay off.

[Pooty]

The thing is, our company treated him like a king. They got him the phone, they got him the credit card, they stocked up his officetel with everything you can imagine - down to the toothbrush and toothpaste, shampoo, soap, toilet paper, food in the fridge. It was unbelievable...

The guy is a tosser. I knew he was a tosser when he wanted 3 weeks vacation over summer last year. They told him that he'd get what everyone else in the company gets...one week vacation. He'd already used up his personal days. So what does he do? He calls from India and tells his boss that his father died. Automatic five days free vacation.

Then he gets back to Korea, and then his wife's mother died. yeah. sure. This guy milked it for everything he could get.

What was really messed up was that he really wasn't qualified to do the job he was hired to do in the first place. So he spent the whole year surfing the internet. They basically left him alone to do whatever he wanted.

[Xuanzang]

[crossmr]

[Xuanzang]

I tried paying with AMEX for online shopping and that wouldnt even work properly. I dont get that so yeah having a real Korean credit card would be helpful.