Korean Job Discussion Forums

[offtokorea]

I'm looking for some advice from someone who's been here longer. I'm leaving my current hagwon early (usual story) and moving to Bundang. My new place of employment will have me open up a new bank account so I'm closing the one here next week. I have a phone through SK tied to that account.

What I was thinking of doing is canceling the phone and asking if I can get a prepaid with the same phone. Do you think that would be possible? Or smart? Or I was thinking of going to Seoul this weekend and looking for a place that would sell me a new rechargeable phone.

Do you know if it's possible to get a prepaid that you don't have to recharge every month? I don't talk on the phone much and it would be a real hassle to have to deal with recharging every month. I was able to get one that I could recharge every three months at the 7-11 in Japan. I just want a phone to text people I'm meeting up with.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

[Drew10]

Basically, all pre-paids that I know of will have to be recharged every month. Any unused minutes you have left 30 days after you add minutes...just go away. I would check into the very basic DIY plans. Most of them you can pay around 12-18k per month and then add minutes or texts for an extra fee depending on the amount of minutes and/or texts you use.

[Troglodyte]

If you really don't use it much to make calls (i.e. don't use it at all or you just use it to receive calls) then you might consider going with Free-T.

http://freet.co.kr/

It's what those shops in Itaewon use when they sell cheap prepaid phones. You can buy recharge cards or go into a shop to recharge it. There are shops in most/all major cities. The catch is that they consume credit each day. It's very small but adds up to about 4000-5000 per month. It sucks but it's probably so do all prepaid plans in Korea. At least this one doesn't need to be recharged each month - just when the credit actually runs out.

Unless you have a LOT of people calling you on the old number, then just send a text message to your friends with the new number to let them know you've changed phones.

[offtokorea]

Thanks so much! Free-T should be perfect for me!

So if I go to Itaewon on the weekend, would I be able to find a dealer? Or is this a weekday only thing?

Looks like there's one dealer in my current city, but I have no clue where, lol.

[offtokorea]

Sorry, one last question. (You CAN buy a FreeT phone on the weekend, btw - I got mine at the IPark mall at Yongsan.)

How do you check the balance of a FreeT phone? I've scoured the English website and come up with zip.

[jc1257]

How much do the phone typically cost? I saw on the website it seemed to indicate that you could get one for under 40,000. That seems too low though.

[offtokorea]

To tell the truth, I have no idea. They only had one pink one and that's all I cared about (darnit, I have a salary now so I'm getting pink phone! ) so it ended up costing me about 90,000 all together, with the phone and the start up. I think the phone was 70. There were some pretty ugly old phones there that I bet were way cheaper.

Anybody out there know how to check the balance?

[jc1257]

Does anyone know where you go about getting a FreeT phone that has reps that speak some English? There website wasn't especially helpful and seemed to indicate that there wasn't a dealer in Itaewon, but I find that hard to believe.

Also, there website lists a sign-up at home price for a few cell phones, but doesn't seem to have a way to register. Maybe this is only on the Korean side of the site. Anyone know?

Thanks.

[Jake_Kim]