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Apple has announced that South Korea's Tmoney card can now be added to the Wallet app.
Your iPhone and Apple Watch can be used to pay for subway and bus rides in the country. The card is also accepted at many major convenience stores in the country.
Funds can be loaded onto the card directly in Apple Wallet with Apple Pay, and there is an option to automatically top up the card when the balance falls below a set amount.
Once you have added the Tmoney card to your Wallet, you can activate Express Mode, which allows users to simply hold their iPhone or Apple Watch near a payment reader to pay for their ride, without needing to unlock the device.
The mode even works for up to 5 hours after the iPhone has run out of battery.
Adding the Tmoney card to the Wallet app requires an iPhone XS or newer running iOS 17.2 or later, or an Apple Watch Series 6 or later with watchOS 10.2 or later.
For The Time Being, It Isn't Available To Foreign Travellers
To purchase and top up a Tmoney card in Apple Wallet, you must have a Korean-issued card — specifically a Hyundai Card, which is the only card supported by Apple Pay.
“The company will try its best to open Apple Pay Tmoney service to foreign travellers,” Tmoney told the Korea JoongAng Daily. Tmoney did not give a specific timeline for when this feature will be eligible to travellers.
This puts it behind many other travel cards on Apple Pay that already let international visitors issue and top up transport cards using credit or debit cards from their home country. For example, foreign visitors to Japan can easily add a Suica transportation card to their Apple Wallet and load it with funds using non-Japanese cards. Even physical Suica cards can be digitised onto Apple Pay.
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