How to Use Apple Pay in South Korea: A Complete Wise Account Setup Guide

Apple Pay isn't officially available in South Korea yet, but there's a workaround. If you're determined to tap your iPhone at Korean convenience stores, you'll need a foreign card that supports Apple Pay—and that's where Wise comes in.

This guide walks you through setting up a Wise account, funding it from Korea, and finally experiencing that satisfying payment chime at your local 7-Eleven.

Why Wise for Apple Pay in Korea?

Most people use foreign online banks like Vivid Money (Germany) for this purpose, but when I tried signing up, the easy workarounds had been patched. As someone who doesn't like taking risks, I went with Wise (UK) instead—formerly known as TransferWise.

Wise was built by people frustrated with traditional money transfer services. It started as a peer-to-peer currency exchange platform and has evolved into a full-featured international banking service. The company's origin story is actually quite interesting if you have time to look it up.

For Koreans wanting to use Apple Pay domestically, 👉 Wise offers a straightforward international payment solution that works seamlessly with Apple Wallet, making contactless payments possible even before Apple Pay's official Korean launch.

Step 1: Opening Your Wise Account

The signup process is straightforward—just follow the app's instructions. You'll need either a passport or an English driver's license for identity verification. There's no video interview required.

Critical: Select the United Kingdom as your country. This ensures you get a Visa-branded card. Other countries may issue Mastercard instead, and many Korean merchants that accept this workaround only work with Visa.

Here's the mindset: You're not pretending to be British. You're a Korean citizen who plans to travel to the UK for business soon and wants to set up banking in advance. Fill out the registration accordingly:

• Account country: United Kingdom

• Citizenship: South Korea

• Phone number: Your Korean mobile number

For the address field, use a package forwarding service address or, if you're lucky, a friend's UK address where you can receive mail. Wise requires issuing a physical card, though you don't necessarily need to receive it. If you don't care about the physical card, you can enter any UK address and let it get returned—you can freeze the card in the app anyway, so there's minimal security risk.

Throughout the process, Wise will repeatedly suggest upgrading to a business account. Ignore these prompts and stick with a personal account. Read everything carefully even though it's in English, and you should successfully create your account.

Step 2: Issue a Card and Add It to Apple Wallet

This part is simple. Wise lets you create and delete multiple virtual cards as needed—use them however you like.

Whether you create a virtual or physical card, you need to add it to Apple Wallet. If your iPhone region is set to Korea, this won't work. Go to Settings > General > Language & Region and change your region to United States. Then open the Wise app, navigate to your card menu, and add it to Apple Wallet. Once done, you can switch your region back to Korea.

When seeking ways to enable international payments from Korea, 👉 Wise provides multi-currency accounts that integrate smoothly with digital wallets, giving you access to payment methods not yet available domestically.

Step 3: Funding Your Account (Top Up)

After opening your account, you'll initially only have a GBP (British Pound) account. You can create accounts in various currencies if you want—each looks like a real bank account in that country, complete with unique IBANs and other details. Pretty cool.

You can also create a KRW (Korean Won) account, though it appears to be a virtual account type. You can't directly fund in KRW, but you can top up in GBP or SGD (Singapore Dollar).

Several funding methods exist, but not all work from Korea. The two main options are:

1. Bank transfer from your Korean bank - Takes 1-3 days, lowest fees

2. Debit/credit card - Nearly instant, slightly higher fees, but many cards won't work

Card funding often fails because this is considered purchasing a cash-equivalent product, which many card issuers block. Currently, Toss Bank Card works reliably. Select "Debit Card" as your payment method. (Bonus: You can even earn Toss Bank Card's 3% cashback on these transactions!)

The iPhone Toss Bank Card Problem

Here's where things get tricky. Toss Bank Card uses Hana Card's payment network, and when you fund Wise, Hana Card's payment module gets involved. On iPhone, this module is completely broken.

Because Hana Card can't force its security software onto iOS, it uses a virtual keyboard for security. You need to enter your CVV, password, and complete SMS verification using this virtual keyboard.

The problem: This virtual keyboard is absolute garbage on iPhone.

I could write a detailed two-hour log of every failure mode I encountered—why it doesn't work, how it doesn't work, how you might get lucky and pass one step only to fail at the next. But I won't subject you to that experience.

Bottom line: It simply doesn't work on iPhone.

Fortunately, Wise has excellent web support. You can complete Toss Bank Card funding on a Windows computer using Internet Explorer. You'll need to install Hana Card's security program, but if you've done Korean online banking, you're already familiar with this process. It won't work on Mac (Safari or Chrome) for the same reasons as iPhone.

However, it does work perfectly on Android phones—both in the Wise app and web browsers.

Solution: Fund with Toss Bank Card using either an Android phone or Windows PC.

Alternatively, just use bank transfer and wait 1-2 days.

Once you've funded in GBP/SGD, convert it to KRW. Since you're spending in Korea, payments will process in KRW anyway. Use the "convert" feature to move money between currencies within Wise—don't accidentally use "send."

Step 4: Testing Apple Pay at a Convenience Store

Your first test should absolutely be at a convenience store. These stores handle virtually every payment method available in Korea.

I chose 7-Eleven because I'd heard Future Asset Pay was launching there. Looking back, this was confusion on my part—I thought Future Asset Pay worked like Apple Pay using NFC terminals. It actually uses a weird separate banner device. Good thing I didn't know, or I wouldn't have walked in so confidently.

I grabbed a few items and placed them on the counter. When the clerk scanned everything and announced the total, I double-clicked my iPhone's power button to activate Apple Pay. The Wise card appeared with instructions to hold near reader. I held my phone to the center of the payment terminal where the wave symbol is located.

Seeing me position my phone at the center, the clerk assumed I was using Samsung Pay and pointed to the magnetic stripe reader on the side saying "You need to use it here." At that exact moment, the terminal chimed and the payment went through. The clerk paused with a slightly confused "Hm?" expression, then said "Payment complete~" and we exchanged goodbyes.

Final Thoughts

True to its origins as TransferWise, Wise excels at transfers and currency exchange. You can open accounts in multiple currencies and move money between them. Having accounts in various currencies makes you feel like you're running an international business.

I had fun converting money between different currency accounts several times. The fees added up a bit, but it was genuinely entertaining. You can even send money to Korean banks by selecting KRW. It feels like operating your own currency exchange, like you're a global entrepreneur moving money around.

If you're using it solely for Apple Pay, just keep everything in KRW since payments process in KRW anyway.

Wise highlights:

• Fast app performance

• Physical card issued automatically (whether you receive it is optional)

• Create and delete multiple virtual cards as needed

• Beautiful card design (physical card too)

To activate a physical card once received, you need to use it offline once and enter your PIN. I'll update once I've tried this.

I currently have accounts with Wise, N26, and Vivid. While Wise is actually the most user-friendly, for reasons I can't detail here, I use Wise as a transfer intermediary and Vivid for actual spending. I'll write guides for N26 and Vivid soon.

Update: Activating Your Physical Card

If you receive your Wise physical card, the app will remind you to activate it by making any purchase and entering your PIN. I wasn't sure which merchants would trigger the PIN entry process, so I left it.

Then I learned you can activate it simply by checking your balance at an ATM. I tested several banks near my home:

• Post Office: Has an "English" menu but it's just translation for foreigners, not for foreign cards. Failed.

• IBK Industrial Bank: Has English menu and card network selection (VISA), but my card was rejected during balance inquiry despite entering the PIN. Failed.

• SC First Bank: Success! Selected foreign card option, chose balance inquiry, entered PIN, and the machine processed everything. I got a receipt with my balance, and the Wise app immediately sent a notification confirming activation.

That satisfying moment when the activation reminder finally disappeared from my account menu—priceless.

Note: Apple Pay's official launch in Korea may happen soon, but until then, this method works reliably for contactless payments at compatible merchants.
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