핸드폰 is mine!

As of yesterday afternoon, I am the proud owner of a snazzy new cell phone. (In Korea, they’re known as a “handphone,” the English pronunciation of the Korean word you see above.) And, I have an accompanying contract with LG Telecom for monthly service. All thanks to Jenny Oh at Jenny’s Cellular Service in Itaewon.

I realize that for readers not living as an expat in Korea, this does not sound like a big deal. Let me explain. If you live in Seoul. You need a cell phone. I’d say it comes short on the list after, say, food, shelter, and oxygen.

You do not want to get lost near Itaewon looking for your friend’s apartment without one. (I did, that’s how I know.) Almost everyone here has a 핸드폰 (or a 휴대전화 to use a more Korean, less Konglish, term). Consequently, pay phones have gone the way of dialup. People are likely to have heard of such a thing, but they’ve never actually seen one.

If you are a foreigner living in Korea, however, getting a cellphone is not as easy as you might think. Just because the websites for the big wireless providers–SK Telecom, LG, and KTF–say that they will sign up a foreigner, that doesn’t necessarily mean they will.

In most cases, you have to have a passport and an alien registration card (ARC)—which I do—and a credit card issued by a Korean bank–which I don’t. All of the English webpages for the providers say that you can sign up for a phone with just the ARC and a passport. But, if you go into any of the stores selling phones and service, they will want a credit card to bill the monthly payments.

(I’ve also heard that some places will sign you up if you have a bankbook that shows you’ve had an account for at least three months, but we didn’t find any of those places, either.)

From what I’ve heard, most expats do one of two things: Get a prepaid “card phone” (a secondhand phone and a prepaid phone card that must be recharged periodically); or, they get a Korean friend to sign up for a cellphone and just reimburse the friend each month.

My husband took the latter course when he moved here in January. One of his coworkers signed up for the phone, and he just pays the guy back each month to cover the cost. But by the time I got here, we were a little wary of imposing on Jake’s already bountiful hospitality. (He helped me when I needed my visa processed and regularly serves as our on-call translator.)

So, I’ve been trying to at least swing the cell phone thing on my own. I’d heard that LG would sign up foreigners without a credit card, if you paid a 200,000 KRW deposit up front. OK, fine. That means about 200,000 KRW or more for the phone, then another 200K for the deposit, plus a 30,000 KRW for an activation fee. That’s over $400. But ok, tell me who to pay.

Everywhere I went, though, no dice. No Korean credit card, no phone. Because my husband works for an American company, his Korean bank wanted an exorbitant deposit of cash before they would issue a credit card. We would have to save for months. Plus, I don’t really want a credit card, it’s just an easy way into debt. As much as possible, we want to pay as we go.

I knew I could definitely do the prepaid phone route, but the per-minute rates on those things are much higher, and we plan to be here awhile, so I didn’t want to end up paying a lot more over time and having a clunky, older secondhand phone to boot. (OK, that last part is a little vain. But, come on, we’re in the land of the swanky cellphones. College students have camera/mp3 player/video phones that they can watch TV on. I just want a color screen!)

I was having no luck at all and just planned to go for the card phone, when Jenny hooked me up with an LG phone and monthly service, no deposit necessary. Like the LG website says, all it took was my passport, ARC, and the money for the phone and activation fee. The clerk at the store did all the paperwork. (There was a lot of paperwork, and I suspect some of the store clerks don’t want to do it all for a foreigner who doesn’t speak Korean.)

Anyway . . . if you are also new here and in need of a phone, I highly recommend that shop. They also offer prepaid phones, cards, phone accessories, and international calling cards. Plus, they have a tanning booth as a side businesss. So you can leave the store connected and with a not-so-healthy golden glow at the same time.