Setting it up
- Install Mobile Tmoney (모바일티머니) from the App Store.
- Choose the Foreigner option inside the app. This is what lets you carry
on without a Korean phone number or Korean identity verification.
- The app issues you a prepaid Tmoney card.
- Add it to Apple Wallet from inside the app.
- In Wallet, turn on Express Mode for it, so it taps without unlocking.
Start in Mobile Tmoney for the foreign-card funding flow. Wallet also offers an add-transit-card flow, but its own top-up method requires an eligible Korean-issued card. Tmoney has worked in Apple Wallet since 21 July 2025.
Tapping the gate
Hold the iPhone or Apple Watch to the reader at the gate or on the bus. With Express Mode on there is no Face ID, no Touch ID and no unlocking — the phone does not even need to be awake, exactly as transit cards behave in Apple Wallet in London or Tokyo. Korean press calls the feature Express Mode rather than Express Transit; it is the same behaviour.
It needs an iPhone XS or XR or later on iOS 17.2 or later, or an Apple Watch Series 6 or SE (2nd generation) or later on watchOS 10.2 or later.
Loading money onto it
| How | Works for a visitor? | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| In the Mobile Tmoney app, Foreigner mode, with a foreign Mastercard, Amex or UnionPay | Yes, in the current app | Reported around 4.5%; check the actual charge |
| The same, with a foreign JCB | Yes, in the current app | Same |
| The same, with a foreign Visa | No — Visa is not listed for this current top-up route | — |
| Apple Wallet's own top-up button | Only with a Korean-issued Hyundai Card | — |
| Holding the phone to a supported station machine and paying cash | Check machine instructions | Foreign-card support for other tickets does not establish Tmoney top-up support |
You can use the app with a supported overseas Mastercard, Amex, UnionPay or JCB. If you only have Visa, check a supported cash-reload location. “Can I top up a Tmoney card at a subway station?” covers the machine, and “Can I top up a transit card in the Mobile Tmoney app?” covers the app's fee and its Visa rule in full. The current App Store listing confirms the supported networks. The release history already names overseas-card charging by March 18, 2026, with JCB appearing on July 1.
What cannot go into Wallet
Apple supports prepaid Tmoney in Wallet. A Climate Card (Seoul's flat-fee unlimited-ride transit pass) remains a separate product. Do not confuse it with K-Pass, a fare-rebate scheme that the current Mobile Tmoney app also supports for eligible users; it is not a visitor substitute for choosing and funding a transit card.
Two things that trip people up
- Treating this as a 2026 feature. Tapping the gate with an iPhone has
worked since July 2025. What arrived in 2026 was the ability to load the balance with a foreign card.
- Expecting Visa to work in the app. It is the one big network the app's
payment gateway does not take. The transit card can still be used once funded; use a supported cash-reload location instead.
