Banking (setup only)

If you are trying to open a Korean bank account, the problem is not your nationality. It is that Korea checks your real ID (본인인증). Signup ties your ID to a residence card it accepts, and to a Korean phone number where the carrier name matches your ID exactly. Tourists with no residence card can’t pass the app signup. Some banks (Woori, for example) let you open in a branch with just a passport.

This page is setup only. We tell you how the process works. We never tell you which bank or product to pick.

Pick your bank first

Before you do anything, find out which bank can even take you:

• Toss Bank means yes for registered foreigners. It is the one internet bank where you can open online with an Alien Registration Card (외국인등록증), permanent residency card (영주증), or domestic residence card (국내거소신고증).
• KakaoBank means no for most foreigners. The normal signup needs a Korean national ID and turns down the 외국인등록증. The English site (eng.kakaobank.com) is just info. It does not drop that rule.

No one else tells you this up front, so people waste days banging into KakaoBank.

Do it yourself, or let us do it

Here is how this works. First we name what stops you. Then we show you how to do it on your own, traps and all. Then we step in when it dead-ends. Many residents can use the Toss app on their own, but it breaks at two spots you can see coming. First, the Korean-only check fails when your SIM and carrier name don’t match your ARC name (the “1-won check won’t pass” problem). Second, there is an NFC e-passport step you can use when you have no Korean number yet.

When this gets stuck (name mismatch, the check fails, or no ARC yet), Toyoni checks your status and does the setup for you. We are the ones you can hold to account, unlike grey-market proxies.