Subways/Trains Seoul + Busan
 

Starting to plan our first trip to Korea for later this year and wondering what is the Korean equivalent to Japan's SUICA card (multiple use pre-paid cards for subways + convenience stores?) If this exists, how much would you load on for a week in Seoul and 5 days in Busan, with plans to take trains around as much as possible. And is it possible to purchase in advance or does this need to be purchased on arrival? Thanks in advance for your help.

The equivalent to SUICA/PASMO/etc is T-Money. Even though my recent trip only involved Seoul, you can use and reload T-money in Busan. We loaded 30000 Won for a six day stay in Seoul and it was just enough to get us by. We didn't use our T-money cards for anything except for transit so if you start using it to pay for snacks at convenience stores, you'll end up burning through it a bit quicker. I don't see the benefit in purchasing the card in advance, nor do I think it's possible. If you want a card, buying it from a convenience store at ICN/GMP would be the way to go as we ended up buying dongle versions of T-money from a vending machine. YMMV.

Thank you so so much for this info. Will pick it up upon arrival and take your advice on how much to load. Happy New Year!

Adding that you can only add money to your card via cash. Credit cards aren't accepted.

T-money is the answer. You can buy and use it at any convenience store and payment for most transpo like bus and trains.