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"Here's a tip for riding Korean buses for free."
Accounts are piling up of foreign tourists boarding city buses without paying after their transit cards were declined for insufficient balance. Claims that the practice is being shared on some overseas online communities as a tip for using Korean public transportation have fueled a growing controversy over fare dodging.
Unpaid Fares Carry Surcharges of Up to 30 Times the Fare
Under Article 13 of the city bus transport service terms set by the Seoul Bus Transport Business Association, riding a bus without paying the fare constitutes fare evasion. Those caught must pay the unpaid fare plus a surcharge equal to 30 times the fare.
Based on the 1,500 won base fare for Seoul city buses, the unpaid fare and surcharge together come to 46,500 won. Whether and how the penalty is imposed follows the relevant transport terms.
Intentional fare evasion can also be subject to criminal punishment. Article 3 of the Minor Offenses Act provides for a fine of up to 100,000 won, detention or a minor fine for failing to pay the fare for a commercial vehicle without justifiable reason.
On the subway, fare evasion can likewise draw an additional fare of up to 30 times the fare for the section traveled, under Article 10 of the Railroad Business Act.
Despite these rules on unpaid fares, some say fares often go uncollected on buses because drivers and foreign passengers cannot communicate.
Four Passengers Board in a Row After "Insufficient Balance" Alerts
A post recently appeared on social media describing four foreign women boarding a Seoul city bus without paying.
According to the writer, identified as A, the four women tapped their transit cards on the reader one after another. All four got an insufficient balance alert.
Even so, they walked into the bus without paying by another method, and the driver did not stop them. "Not just one of them — every single one had an insufficient balance and they just got on," A said, expressing disbelief.
A confronted the women directly while getting off the bus. "I told them you can't ride the bus without paying, and they looked flustered and said they knew," A said.
As the post spread, commenters said they had seen similar situations.
One user said it was "already the second time in a week," claiming that two foreign women had boarded without paying a few days earlier and that, more recently, a foreign man had tapped several transit cards in turn and then boarded anyway when none went through.
Another user said they had witnessed similar scenes several times around Gwanghwamun. "Drivers can't speak English, so they often just wave people on, and it looks like that's what these riders are counting on," the user said.
Some also claimed that methods for riding Korean buses free of charge are circulating among foreign tourists like travel advice.
One user said such material "is going around overseas as tips on Korean public transportation," claiming that posts on Reddit and TikTok describe drivers letting riders off the hook or other passengers covering the fare.
Accounts Emerge in Jeju and Busan as Well, With Calls for Guidance on Handling Tourists
This is not the first controversy over foreign tourists failing to pay bus fares.
In September, accounts surfaced of Chinese-speaking tourists boarding the No. 101 bus departing Jeju International Airport without paying despite insufficient balance alerts.
A reader who said they had visited Jeju Special Self-Governing Province with their daughter claimed the same situation repeated itself over several stops.
"At first I thought it was nothing, but at every stop another Chinese passenger with no balance left would get on," the reader said.
Even when the card payment failed, the passenger and the driver could not communicate, and the bus ended up pulling away without collecting the fare, according to the account.
The reader said three more tourists later boarded after hearing insufficient balance alerts, and asked, "If the driver just lets them on, aren't they deliberately boarding without topping up?"
Similar accounts have followed from Seoul, Busan and Daejeon as well as Jeju Special Self-Governing Province. Some users claimed passengers took a seat without paying because the bus pulled away while they were tapping several cards in turn.
In response, some have called for multilingual fare notices in English and Chinese on routes heavily used by foreign tourists, along with guidance for drivers on how to handle unpaid fares.
Online accounts alone, however, cannot establish that foreign tourists are systematically sharing fare-dodging methods or deliberately refusing to pay. The actual scale of such cases and whether they are intentional remain unconfirmed.
Still, with similar cases reported in multiple regions, voices are growing for measures to reduce situations in which language barriers make fare collection difficult.
