Dodori Korea TripGuide
T-money refund: getting your money back, at the right counter
A T-money refund is actually two separate refunds, and almost every English explanation online mixes them up. One takes ten seconds at a machine in the station. The other takes a minute at any convenience store. And one thing you are probably expecting to get back, you will not.
First, work out which card you have
Look at what you are holding.
A thin card you bought from a machine inside a station, for one trip. That is a single-journey ticket. You paid the fare (1,650 KRW for a short hop, which is 1,550 KRW on a rechargeable card plus a hundred won for the privilege of not having one) and on top of it a refundable deposit of 500 KRW. That deposit comes back from a machine, not a person.
A plastic card you bought at a convenience store, or a character-shaped one you picked up somewhere. That is a rechargeable T-money card. Its deposit is nothing, because it does not have one. What you paid was the price of the card itself. Whatever money you loaded onto it is a separate thing, and that part is refundable.
Mixing these two up is the single most common mistake. The 500 KRW you keep reading about belongs to the single-journey ticket. It has nothing to do with the plastic card in your wallet.
Single-journey ticket: get the deposit at the station
Do this the moment you walk out through the exit gates, at the station where you finished your trip. Do not save the card for later.
- After tapping out at the exit gates, look for a machine labelled Deposit Refund Device. It sits in the paid-to-unpaid area near the gates, usually against a wall within sight of them.
- Feed the card into the slot on the front. There is nothing to press and no language to choose.
- The machine keeps the card and drops 500 KRW in coins into the tray.
If you have already left the station, the card still works at any other station's refund machine on the same network, so it is not lost. But there is no reason to carry it around, and machines exist in every station precisely so you do not have to.
Rechargeable T-money card: refund the balance at a convenience store
This is for the money sitting on the card, not the card.
- Go to any GS25, CU, 7-Eleven or Emart24. It does not have to be where you bought it.
- Hand the card over and say "티머니 환불" (tee-money hwan-bul). Most staff will understand what you want from the card alone.
- They tap it on the counter reader and hand you the balance in cash, minus a 500 KRW fee.
Which store you walk into changes the limit. This is the part nobody tells you, and it is why some travellers get turned away and conclude the refund does not exist.
- GS25 and 7-Eleven refund a balance up to 20,000 KRW.
- CU and Emart24 go up to 30,000 KRW.
- Station customer service desks on the Seoul metropolitan network go up to 50,000 KRW.
So if you are sitting on 20,000 KRW (about $15) or more, do not queue at a GS25. Walk to a CU. Above the CU ceiling, the station desk is your answer, and above that you are looking at a bank ATM or the T-money centre near Seoul Station, which is a real errand rather than an airport-morning task.
One practical note: small stores keep limited cash in the till. If your balance is near the top of the range, a busier branch earlier in the day goes more smoothly.
Before you queue anywhere
Where can you actually get this refunded?
This is the balance on a rechargeable plastic card. The card itself is a purchase and never comes back.
The new station kiosks, and what they do not do
Seoul Metro finished installing new ticket kiosks across all 273 stations on lines 1 to 8 in January 2026, and they added a refund menu. Useful, but read the fine print before you rely on it:
- Prepaid T-money cards cannot be refunded at these kiosks. The plastic card in your pocket is a prepaid card. The kiosk will not help you.
- Unused single-journey tickets can be refunded there, but only if you never tapped in.
- Even then, the 500 KRW deposit still comes out of the separate deposit refund machine, in coins. The kiosk hands back the fare, the old machine hands back the deposit.
If an English guide tells you the new kiosks let you cash out your T-money card, it has not been updated. Go to a convenience store.
What you will not get back
The card itself. You paid 3,000-5,000 KRW for it, and that is a purchase, not a deposit. Nobody will refund it, at the store, at the customer centre, or at the airport.
This catches people out because the English-language internet keeps calling it a deposit. It is not. Treat the card as a souvenir that also happens to have paid for your trips, and the arithmetic stops feeling unfair.
If you are coming back to Korea, keep the card. Balances do not expire, and the card will still work on your next trip. Refunding 500 KRW worth of fee off a small balance to save a card you will buy again is a bad trade.
Is it worth doing at all
Run the numbers before you queue.
A balance under about 500 KRW is not worth refunding, because the fee eats it. A balance of a few thousand won is worth the minute it takes. Either way, the easier move is to spend the balance down: T-money works in convenience stores, most vending machines, and many taxis, so buying a bottle of water on the way to the airport train clears it without a fee.
The single-journey deposit is different. That one is always worth the ten seconds, because there is no fee and the machine is standing right there.
At the airport
Do the convenience-store refund before you go through security. There are convenience stores landside at both Incheon terminals, and none once you are through.
The Airport Railroad express train does not accept T-money for the express service, only the all-stop service. If you are planning to spend your balance down on the way out, the all-stop train is the one that will take it.
Quick answers: T-money refunds
How do I get a refund on a T-money card?
Take it to any GS25, CU, 7-Eleven or Emart24, say 티머니 환불, and the balance comes back in cash minus a 500 KRW fee. GS25 and 7-Eleven refund up to 20,000 KRW; CU and Emart24 up to 30,000 KRW; station customer service desks up to 50,000 KRW.
Is the T-money card price refundable?
No. The 3,000-5,000 KRW you paid for the card is a purchase, not a deposit. Only the balance loaded onto it is refundable. If you are coming back to Korea, keep the card - balances do not expire.
How do I get the deposit back on a single-journey ticket?
At the Deposit Refund Device near the exit gates of any station: feed the card in and 500 KRW drops out in coins. Do it as you leave.
Can I refund T-money at Incheon Airport?
At the landside convenience stores in both terminals, before security. There are none after security. Alternatively spend the balance down on the all-stop airport train, which takes T-money; the express service does not.
Figures on this page come from Seoul Metro, Seoul city price index, Seoul Tourism Association, Korea Tourism Organization. Checked against the published source on the date below.
LAST VERIFIED 15 AUGUST 2026