Korean Job Discussion Forums

[moosehead]

I've just been told by KT that I can pay their bills at any Family Mart or GS25; she said she thought I could also pay my gas and elect there also - I said why do you think none of my schools ever told me that? She said probably because so many people pay automatically thru their banks or go to the bank to pay.

anyway, I've been here several years and didn't know so maybe some of you might want to know this also as it's certainly more convenient than making a mad rush out of work some days to pay one's bills on time.

cheers!

[orosee]

Many ways to pay your bills here, GS25 and Family Mart accept a lot of different sources.

I think the reason why you often have to find this out by yourself may be that so many Koreans stay with their parents until they get married, which means well into their 30's. So they have never had to think about how all those bills get paid, dad and mom have taken care of it.

Which means us Westerners have a 10 to 20 year head start on "life"

Things my Korean assistants (all in their late 20's/early 30's) learned because they had to go with me (for translation) while I was setting up my life in Seoul:

- what a SIM card is, why they are put in phones and why it is useful that you can change them when travelling,
- how to use an ATM to pay bills,
- what a standing order is, and how the rest of the world's banks offers this service but Korean banks don't,
- why international credit cards are useful if you travel overseas,
- how to use the OCR Giro machines to pay bills by putting them into the big slot,
- how to make an international money transfer, for outrageous charges,
- problems you can have with your washing machine,
- how to set up an autopay option for some of your bills,
- how Hong Kong, Singapore and to some extent, even Bangkok are better places for your banking needs than Korea,
- that you can put your money from a regular savings account into a more profitable type of account to get more interest,
- that you can use your savings and invest regularly into mutual funds etc. none of which need to be in Korea or your home country.

I'm still not fully set up so there may be more to come. I am producing a more functional generation of soon-to-be-independent young Koreans here!

Useful stuff I learned from them:

- the little thingies that you can attach to your mobile are better than a regular T-Money card,
- often, bills and receipts for bills paid look very similar - no need to take a receipt to a GS25 and try to pay again
- even Koreans are often fooled by the above because they don't carefully check before going to the bank with me (my assistant and me tried about 12 times to insert a receipt marked "paid" into the Giro OCR slot, until the paper was finally completely shredded - it took bank staff to explain the error of our ways),

That's about it but I hope there's more to come.

Clearly I have too much time this morning

I went out Thursday night for a few drinks and woke up Friday afternoon with about 70K of my money spent (I can account for that), a new and number on my mobile, and a credit card receipt of over 1.4M in my wallet . Lesson to myself: Never continue drinking after drinking buddy has left.

[Misera]

Question.. Can we pay Korean Electric Power bills at GS25/Family Mart? And umm if you don't pay for a month, are there late fees? My school keeps not paying off the month in between when the last teacher left and I came so the unpaid portion keeps showing up but I have no idea if a late fee was applied elsewhere.

[nizpaz]

What I've learned from you Oresee is that you have far more helpful CT's than I have. They helped you with all that stuff? Incredible! Mine had a go at me for not setting up a phone fast enough and sent me everywhere alone. By the way they are all in their 40's so no excuses about not knowing!

As for bills yep I discovered thru the KEB rep that you can pay by machine in the bank, that some bills are infact receipts and Family MArt do take payment if it has their little symbol on the paper.

Other bills can be done by transfer at the ATM.

[Straphanger]