What it does
WOWPASS is a prepaid card issued by a kiosk. Feed the kiosk foreign notes — sixteen currencies are accepted — and it hands you a card holding the won, which you can use at supported shops. The card also has a separate Tmoney balance for eligible subway, bus and taxi fares. It also gives cash back: withdrawals at a kiosk cost ₩1,000 each, up to ₩100,000 a time. Card purchases carry no fee.
Put simply: a Tmoney card is a transit card that also works in a few shops; WOWPASS combines a prepaid shopping card with a separate transit balance and access to currency-exchange kiosks. If you land with foreign cash and no won, check which services are available at your chosen kiosk. If you already have won, or a foreign card that works at the till, a plain Tmoney card does the transport half for less fuss — “How do I buy a physical Tmoney card?”.
Where to get one
WOWPASS lists about 439 kiosks across the country, in hotels, convenience stores, subway stations and tourist areas, plus counters at Incheon (both terminals), Gimpo, Jeju, Gimhae (Busan) and Daegu airports and the Incheon and Busan ferry terminals. You can pick one up on arrival or in town; neither is the only option.
What it costs
- Buying it. WOWPASS does not print a price on its site. Travellers report
about ₩6,000 from a machine and ₩5,500 through the app, after a rise in March 2026 — check the kiosk screen before you confirm.
- Loading it. Cash at a kiosk carries no stated fee. Adding money by credit card in the app can incur a WOWPASS charge plus any overseas-payment fee from your card issuer. Compare the displayed total with the cash exchange rate; your bank’s fee depends on your card.
- Spending it. WOWPASS states that purchases have no fee and kiosk cash withdrawals cost ₩1,000 each.
The trap at the subway gate
The transit balance is a separate pot from the spending balance. Loading ₩100,000 of exchanged cash onto it puts nothing on the Tmoney side, and the first tap at a gate fails. Before boarding, add money to the transit balance too — a few thousand won is enough to start — and reload it the same way any Tmoney card is reloaded: cash at a convenience-store counter or a station machine.
Tmoney against WOWPASS
| Plain Tmoney card | WOWPASS | |
|---|---|---|
| Subway, bus, taxi | Yes | Yes |
| Paying in shops | A few — convenience stores | Supported card-accepting shops |
| Turning foreign cash into won | No | Yes, sixteen currencies |
| Cash withdrawal | No | Yes, ₩1,000 a time |
| Card price | ₩3,000–5,000 | About ₩6,000, unpublished |
| Where sold | Participating convenience stores | About 439 kiosks |
Tmoney's own tourist card, the Tmoney Travel Card+ (₩6,000), now carries WOWPASS's payment function as well, so the two are no longer strictly rivals — “Korea Tour Card (now Tmoney Travel Card) or a plain Tmoney card?”.
