hco

Here is my situation:
* Living in Korea, will probably stay here for a couple of years.
* SkyTeam/Flying Blue: Gold (~100k miles in account)
* Korean Air Skypass: only membership to use web booking, zero miles.
* SAS/Star Alliance: no status, few miles
* FinnAir/Oneworld: no status, few miles

I thought it would be time now to get a CC with some sort of points/mileage accural. I looked at the CCs branded with Skypass (13 different!) and I guess the 1 mile/1000KRW is an ok deal.

But it feels kind of lame to start collecting Skypass miles, since I'd rather get the miles to my Flying Blue account, and as far as I understand, it is not possible to convert miles between the programs.

So..

1) Are there any other CCs issued in Korea that allow transfer of points to Flying Blue? Like hotel chains or whatever?

2) Or should I just burn the Flying Blue miles, and start over with Skypass, pooling both CC miles and SkyTeam miles?

3) Or should I get a CC for some other Alliance and try to shift my flying pattern to *A or Oneworld?

mattlindsaynz

Haven't seen anythng for FlyingBlue over here.

I got my credit card through KEB Bank ... pretty much the only bank I know here that is foreigner friendly http://bank.keb.co.kr/index_en.jsp ... Global Card is 10k a year and their ExPat card is 120k (with different benefits)

hco

Thanks for the info! I still haven't got myself a Korean CC, but now I've started to look into it again.

I see that the Expat Card (120 k/year) can be Yes point (5 Yes point/1000 KRW) or Korean Air (1.5 miles/1500 KRW in Korea & 3 miles/1500 KRW-equivalent abroad). You also get Priority Pass.

For the Global Card (10 k/year) Yes points are 5/200 KRW and Korean Air are 1 mile/2000 KRW. Also, Starbucks and Pascucci are 10 % discount!

Do you know what % they add to foreign transactions? Can't seem to find that info.

mattlindsaynz

According to the back of my statement its a 1% surcharge for overseas use

hco

Ok, that's pretty resonable/standard. Thanks!

A_Lee

I was on an OZ flight the other day and noticed the advertisements displayed on the IFE screen. One of them was for a Citibank card and I believe it gives 1.3 miles per 1000 KRW spent to your Asiana account. A lot of times the Korean companies have the same deal with OZ and KE, so it might be worthwhile checking them out if earning a few more miles per KRW spent is important to you. I'd think with them being an international bank, they might be a bit foreigner friendly, but who knows.

hco

After comparing, the situation looks like this to me:

KEB
Expat card / KE
1 mile/1000 KRW (domestic)
2 mile/1000 KRW (abroad) ^
Priority pass
120 000 KRW/year fee

Expat signature card / KE
0.67 mile/1000 KRW
Priority pass
150 000 KRW/year fee

Expat signature card /OZ
1 mile/1000 KRW
Priority pass
150 000 KRW/year fee

Signature card /KE
0.67 mile/1000 KRW (domestic)
2 mile/1000 KRW (abroad)
Priority pass
150 000 KRW/year fee

Signature card /OZ
1 mile/1000 KRW (domestic)
2 mile/1000 KRW (abroad) ^
Priority pass
150 000 KRW/year fee

Citibank
Visa /KE
1 mile/1000 KRW
Priorit pass (for Plat)
20/30/130 000 KRW/year fee (silver/gold/plat)

MasterCard /KE
1.2 mile/1000 KRW
Priorit pass (for Plat)
30/50/140 000 KRW/year fee (silver/gold/plat)

MasterCard /OZ
1.33 mile/1000 KRW ^
No Priority pass, but "MasterCard Lounge" for Gold/Plat.
20/30/130 000 KRW/year fee (silver/gold/plat).

Now I'll visit a KEB and Citi office to clear out if I understod this right or not.
Another thing to take into account are of course the levels and miles earned on actually flying. OZ seems a lot more generous there compared to KE.

SirJman

Are you Korean, have a Korean spouse? I have a D2 visa and KEB said I cannot get any type of credit here.

hco

I'm not Korean and I do not have Korean spouse. When I visited Citibank, they asked me if I had visa and what I worked with, after that they presented a range of CCs. Also, the info didn't always correlate with their webpage. Haven't visited KEB yet. My visa is D-8-1.

Or maybe your question was directed to mattlindsaynz, since he actually has a card.

A_Lee

I just googled the Korean D-2 visa and it appears you're just in Korea on a student visa. As with any bank in the world, they're not likely to issue a credit card to someone unless they have a regular job or other provable steady income, collateral, or other means to prove their financial soundness. Even if you have a part-time job, based on my experience trying to help a student in that situation before, the banks will consider all money earned by a student as going towards their educational expenses, so will not issue a credit card.

I do know KEB will issue credit cards to foreigners working in Korea at regular jobs, though don't know if there's certain visa types that are included/excluded from that.

Hco, nice job on the summary of the different cards available in Korea from KEB and Citibank.

A_Lee

I just had a look around on the KEB website (a major undertaking in itself with the need to install all sorts of plug-ins to just get to the information), and found something interesting.

For the OZ Signature card, it looks like you get an annual free gift of your choice of:
1) Shilla duty free 150,000 KRW coupon
2) Free partner domestic ticket on KE or OZ
That right there pays for the annual card fee, plus you get the Priority Pass and all the other goodies. They list 10% off international airfares if booked through their online travel agent. Not quite sure how well that might work. Overall, looks like quite a good deal for someone who travels a lot.

One point worth noting for people who might use the card a lot for very small purchases, the KE card shows the mileage earned based on 1,500 KRW, not 1,000 KRW. This might be significant in that I believe the miles are earned for each purchase individually, (ie. rounded down to the nearest 1,500KRW) so if you buy something for 1,400 KRW, you don't get any miles. If you buy something for 2,900 KRW, you only earn the mile as if the purchase was 1,500 KRW. So having a card with a 1,000 KRW base is much preferable to having a 1,500 KRW base, if you do a lot of these small purchases.

hco

Correct, all of the KEB "signature" cards include a Shilla duty free voucher for the same amount as the yearly fee.

Strangely, the "Expat card" (but not the "Expat Signature card") is excluded from this. The domestic free flight for your partner is included though.

hco

After more discussions and reviewing I've come to the conclusion that these are the best cards, offered by banks that have good services to foreigners. There are tons of other cards by other banks, and I'm sure that foreigners can get good service from them also, if you find a good contact person. But one of my requirements was that they have an English version of their website and that they speak out to the English speaking community, thus leaving only KEB and Citi.

Requirement: more than 1.0 mile/1000 KRW. Other cards are excluded.

(bank / card name / airline / mile earning per 1000 KRW in Korea / mile earning per 1000 KRW abroad / MC or VISA / PP / duty free voucher / foreign exchange fee / yearly fee)

KEB, Expat card, KE, 1, 2, VISA, PP, No, 1.0%, 120,000 KRW

KEB, Signature, OZ, 1, 2, VISA, PP, Yes (150,000), 1.0%, 150,000 KRW

Citi, Platinum, KE, 1.2, 1.2, MC, PP? (Platinum), No, 0.75%, 40,000 KRW? 140,000 KRW? (*)

Citi, Platinum, OZ, 1.33, 1.33, MC, No, No, 0.75%, 30,000 KRW

Citi, Premier miles, You choose(**), based on airline(**), based on airline(**), VISA, PP, No(***), ?%, 120,000 KRW

(*) Conflicting info on paper info from bank and bank website regarding price with PP. Check with Citi if card looks interesting for you.

(**) OZ 1.35, KE 1.0, Singapore/Delta/Thai 1.2, Cathay 0.48. Citi premier miles are transfered upon request to whatever program you choose.

(***) But there is first year bonus of 5000 miles and also different spending bonuses (5k, 8k, 50k) if you spend more than 20, 40 or 100 million KRW/year.

The more expensive cards also give you a lot of discounts (CGV, amusement parks, etc) and other stuff (valet parking etc). All include travel insurance if you pay 100% with your card. The Shilla Duty Free voucher for KEB Signature cards is only valid if you spend the fixed amount or more, i.e. you cannot buy stuff for 100,000 KRW if the voucher is on 150,000 KRW (thus trying to save 50,000 KRW for another time).

In the end, the parameters low yearly fee, high mileage earning and low foreign exchange was important for me, so I choose the Citi OZ MC. But it was a close call with the KEB OZ Signature VISA (despite the high yearly fee), and for others some of the other cards might be more suitable. How much you spend domestic vs outside of Korea, will of course influence your choice between KEB and Citi.

The fact that I'm guessing my work will put me on more OZ flights than KE flights in the future, also influenced my choice.

Hope this guide can be helpful to others!

(should this post be somewhere else? since it not only about KE now? moderator guidance please!)

A_Lee

I'd say the thread seems fine here to me, but might be nice to make a post in the OZ forum linking to this thread, as I'm sure some member of that forum never come over here.

Did you happen to check out HSBC? They don't have very many branches in Korea, but they're definitely foreigner friendly and have English versions available for most all their materials from what I've heard. Have no idea though if they have any sort of credit cards that earn mileage.

I can see that some people might even be interested in getting two different cards to get the best of both worlds. Such as the Citi OZ MC and the KEB Signature Visa. Then use the appropriate card which has the better benefits for whatever situation you're in.

Thanks so much for sharing what you found out.

hco

I did not see HSBC when I scanned OZ and KE websites for CC partners. I checked their website out now and - I might might be blind but - I found zero info about CCs at all. Slightly confusing. Saw that they have 11 branches in Korea though.

And yes, I totally agree. For some it might be wise to get two cards, and I would choose the same as you. If you shop for more than 150,000 KRW (which I don't) at Shilla Duty Free, then KEB's signature visa is a no-brainer.