So, I’m asking for advice on a cell phone in Korea. I know I want a prepaid phone, but the problem is, all the phones they sell on base are… how do I say this diplomatically? The sort of phones you’d expect airmen living in the dorms to buy. Yeah, tacky. Touch-screens, sliders, flip-phones, and combinations of these categories. There was a Blackberry and an Android phone, but both were in the $4-500 range (my current and now non-connected phone is a Verizon Blackberry 8330, if that could be made to work).
Mainly, I want a phone that looks like a freaking phone. Little screen, number pad, answer and hang up buttons and a little navigator thing in the middle. Basically like all the old Nokia candybar phones. None are to be found at the two places on base I can buy phones at. I’m planning to take a trip out into town after payday, but in the mean time, anybody know of what kinds of phones I might buy online (affordably, that is to say, cheaply) that will work with Korean pre-paid services?
There should be several places right outside of your base to purchase exactly what you are looking for! Won’t be a problem at all for you to find the kind of prepaid phone you’re looking for. Then you just keep going back to the same store to buy won to put on it.
Actually, it very well might be a problem for the OP to buy “whatever he’s looking for” off base here in Korea. To activate the phone, even a prepaid phone, if he purchases one off base, he’ll need either his Korean National ID Number or his Alien Registration Number, neither of which he’ll have of course. Using his military or military dependent ID card, he can purchase one on base. A number of people do get a Korean citizen friend to register a pre-ppay or post-pay phone for them; however, that’s illegal, not to mention the friend is the one who’ll be stuck for the bill if you decide you don’t want to be bothered paying for it (not saying the OP would do that).
The Korean cell phone service providers aren’t all that amenable (read: not at all) to providing service to a cell phone one’s brought in from out of the country. I’ve heard of it happening but that’s all, I’ve heard of it. Everyone I personally know here who’s tried to get that done has gotten the big “A-ni-yo” for his trouble.
Just last Saturday, I was at Camp Walker in Daegu and their selection, while not that extensive, does include the iPhone. And every time I’m up at the main base in Yongsan, I see a decent enough selection at the Business Center in the Dragon Hill Lodge.
If the OP’s stationed in Korea, why not go with getting a post-pay phone? It’s much less trouble.
I don’t use my phone very often. Mainly it’d just be a way for my supervisor to contact me if I’m not in my dorm or at work, or for me to call someone while I’m out in town (like if we’re trying to meet up somewhere). I figure if I get a phone with 200 minutes a month, I’ll be paying for 190 minutes every month I won’t be using. And I really don’t want to get an iPhone, partially because they forgot to include a number pad on it, something I generally prefer for a phone to have.
The last time I was in Korea, there was a rental phone booth at the airport.
However, they still seem to have an extensive pay phone system there (last I went was in 2006 i think) and it’s not hard to get a prepaid card that you insert directly into the phone and can recharge at any convenience store.
OK, so I have a prepaid phone now, the only question I’ve got is… how do I see how many minutes I have? If nobody here knows, I’m probably going to ask the people at the cell phone shop and hope they can help me out, but there is a bit of a communication problem in that their English is a bit shakey, my speaking of English tends towards the unorthodox (I talk funny), and my Korean is for all practical intents and purposes nonexistent.
This hasn’t been my experience or that of any of my Soldiers or anyone I know who either is or was stationed in Korea. Go to the shop off post, pay for a pre-paid phone. That’s it. Go back as needed to put more minutes on it.
Now, if that is because the cell phone store is doing something shady and skipping legal registrations then that’s on them. But it has never been a hassle for a Soldier in Korea to get a prepaid phone off post.
Find a KATUSA while you’re out on base and ask him. More than likely, he’ll know exactly how to do it.
Well, I don’t think we have KATUSAs on my base (Air Force installation, rather than an Army post), but I’ll ask around. I’m mostly only using this phone for when I travel out of town or when my chain needs to contact me for something.
The government here has periodic crackdowns on various illegal activity. Turns out that one such activity is “fronting” for another person to get any kind of credit account. A pre-pay, just like post-pay, phone is considered a credit account. Furthermore, if the phone is registered to a foreign national, the account must have a termination date. As an E-2 visa holder, my accounts have a termination date that matches the expiration date of my visa. It’s really a simple thing, though, for me to notify the service provider when my visa’s renewed.
The shops off base may be able to register the phone using the military ID card, but that number isn’t anywhere close in format to the ARC/KID numbers required. The problem with “it’s on them” method is that if the government decides to inspect the seller you used and it’s not above board, they’ll just order the account terminated.
I still think the best bet is to go through the base. The Exchange, the USO (at least in Daegu), and the Business Centers all sell phones.
All of the cell phone service providers do have an English option when you call the service number. When you got the phone, the seller should’ve told you who he service provider is and their customer service number.
Yah, got that stuff explained to me today, so now I can check my minutes whenever!
I might be buying a new phone though, or at least seeing if I can get a new battery. This thing seems to be dead after only a single day off the charger.
That is rather interesting. No one has ever mentioned pre-pay phones needing registration or being considered a “credit account”. Strange too, since that is kind of the opposite of a credit account. I wonder what the phone places are doing to get around the rules. I also know that the areas right outside of many bases are considered “Special Tourist Districts”, and maybe that has something to do with why they can sell prepaids to Soldiers without hassle.
Raguleader, what kind of plan did you get, where did you buy yours, and what documentation and paperwork was required?
I basically had a used phone someone gave me activated (cost $40), and bought a $9 card that keeps the phone active for a month and gives me about 30 minutes. The idea is that the phone’s pretty much just for people to contact me for stuff like a unit recall (usually happens for stuff like training exercises or natural disasters, would theoretically happen if the balloon went up).
As for documentation, they only needed my driver’s license and a credit card. I bought the phone at one of the two shops on base.
Only thing is, the battery in this thing dies super fast. I might just end up buying a new phone in a couple weeks when I get paid again if that keeps up.
