Reloading with cash
Use a subway ticket machine with a Tmoney reload pad. Rest your Tmoney card on the pad, choose the amount, and feed in notes — the machines take cash reloads up to ₩500,000 a time. The same pad reloads a phone holding a Tmoney card: hold the phone where the card would go. Follow the machine’s instructions and use a supported reload pad. Keeping some won is useful when card-funded top-ups are unavailable.
Paying with a foreign card at the new machines
Since the first train on 17 March 2026, the new-model machines — 440 of them, across 273 stations on Seoul Lines 1–8 — take a foreign-issued Visa or Mastercard, credit or debit, and the Kakao Pay and Naver Pay wallets. A service fee of about 3.7% is added to a foreign-card payment. Acceptance of Visa for these ticket purchases does not mean that Visa can reload an ordinary Tmoney balance.
What the foreign card buys — and what it may not
Seoul's own announcement says foreign-card payment applies *primarily* to:
- buying a Climate Card (Seoul's flat-fee unlimited-ride transit pass) (기후동행카드) and reloading its **1, 2, 3, 5 and
7-day passes** — “Is Seoul's Climate Card transit pass worth it?”;
- buying a single-ride ticket.
The announcement does not confirm foreign-card payments for ordinary Tmoney top-ups. Check which transaction the machine offers, and use cash if card payment is unavailable. Carry enough won for the reload either way.
Older machines
The announcement covers 440 new machines. Older machines may offer cash payment only. If no card-payment option appears, follow the machine’s cash instructions or find a supported machine.
