Cashbee card refund follows EZL's table, not T-money's

A Cashbee card is refunded on EZL’s rules, not T-money’s. EZL is the company that issues Cashbee. Its Korean refund table lets a CU pay back a balance of 30,000 won or less, and GS25, 7-Eleven and emart24 a balance of 20,000 won or less, each for a 500 won fee. Above 30,000 won no store will help, and the way out EZL gives foreigners is not a subway counter but an exchange kiosk.

The two cards look alike and work on the same gates, so it is easy to treat the refund as the same too. It mostly is, with one store that differs and a different route for big balances.

Cashbee card refund at a convenience store

EZL’s balance-refund page says it covers EZL and Cashbee cards only. Its table for a card that still reads normally:

Every row says the card price is not refunded and the money comes back on the spot. The table does not say whether a store can refund part of a balance, so assume it is the whole balance or nothing, as it is for T-money.

EZL’s pages give three different ceilings

Read three EZL pages and you get three versions of the same limit:

• The Korean refund table above: 30,000 won or less at CU, 20,000 won or less at the rest.
• EZL’s Korean refund summary page: store and ATM refunds are for a normal card with a balance under 20,000 won (2만원 미만). No CU exception.
• EZL’s English guide for foreigners, in two answers on the same page: once “less than 30,000 won” at CU and less than 20,000 won elsewhere, and once “Only amounts of 20,000 or less will be refunded in KRW”.

None of the three is dated. The table is the most detailed and the English guide also gives CU the higher limit, so treat CU as the store for a balance above 20,000 won. The table says 3만원 이하 and the English says less than, so a card holding exactly 30,000 won is safer one bus ride lower. But a cashier reading the summary could refuse anything from 20,000 won up. So treat 20,000 won as safe at any of the four chains, and 20,000 to 30,000 won as something to try at a CU, with a fallback in mind.

Cashbee card vs T-money: what changes for a refund

Put EZL’s table next to T-money’s Korean refund table and most rows match:

emart24 is the row that costs money. A Cashbee card holding between 20,000 and 30,000 won is refundable at an emart24 if you read T-money’s page, and not if you read EZL’s.

The bigger difference is above the store ceilings. T-money’s page offers a partial refund of 1만원 to 5만원 at its head office or a subway station customer centre, and sends a balance over 5만원 to the head office or to an ATM paying into a Korean account (see the Incheon airport refund page). EZL’s refund pages name no subway counter at all. Neither company’s page says a T-money counter takes a Cashbee card, so do not count on one.

Look at the logo on the card before you choose a store. If it is worn off, the 16-digit number helps: mybi’s refund page tells holders of a 16-digit card number starting 104 to check the fee on Cashbee’s site instead.

Over 30,000 won: the exchange kiosk

EZL’s English guide gives foreigners a second way to cash out: the DOZN Exchange kiosks, the unattended currency-exchange machines. It lists their balance-refund fees:

It is the route EZL’s English guide gives foreigners for a balance a store cannot take. It costs 1,000 won against a store’s 500 won, so use it for a balance over 30,000 won, not for one a store can take. The Shinhan and Woori ATM rows further down also go above 30,000 won, but they count by resident registration number, and the page does not say whether a foreigner’s registration number works there.

DOZN’s location list showed 100 kiosks on 2 October 2026, and most of them list the EZL service. Those are clustered in Myeongdong, Hongdae, Seongsu and around Dongdaemun in Seoul, and in Seomyeon, Haeundae, Gwangalli and Gamcheon in Busan. Jeju has several, including one at the Jeju Port passenger terminal. None of the 100 was at Incheon, Gimpo or Gimhae airport. The closest to Incheon airport on the list is the one inside the Inspire resort. A few, such as the CU Ambassador Hongdae kiosk, do not list the EZL service at all.

One thing does not line up. EZL tells you to filter DOZN’s list by “EZL Card Top-up” to find refund kiosks, and DOZN’s list calls the service exactly that: top-up. Its EZL entries never say refund. So treat the kiosk refund as EZL’s statement, not DOZN’s, and do it in the city on your second-to-last day, not on the way to the airport.

The ATM and head-office routes

EZL’s Korean table also lists bank ATMs:

• Lotte ATM: a cash refund of 20,000 won or less, or 30,000 won or less as a transfer.
• Shinhan and Woori ATMs: up to 500,000 won a month, counted per resident registration number (주민번호).
• NH bank: up to 500,000 won, for partner cards only, paid within 5 business days.

Then there is the head office, by post or in person, with no upper limit in its row of the table. EZL’s Korean summary page names visit refunds in Seoul and Busan. The fee is 500 won up to 20,000 won and 4% above that, and the card price stays spent. The same table waives the fee once 80% or more of the balance since the last paid top-up has been used (60% for amounts under 1만원, as the page reads), so a nearly spent card costs nothing to refund there. It takes 7 business days, or 10 business days from the day a posted envelope arrives. The page does not say how the money is paid out for a working card. For a faulty card it says bank transfer, so assume a Korean account is needed.

Cashbee refund from abroad

If you are already home, EZL’s English guide describes a refund through the foreigners’ app, EZL TOP UP. Its chatbot has an item for refunds from outside Korea. You leave the 16-digit card number, and one to two months later the money arrives minus a 4% refund fee, a 13,000 won remittance fee and exchange-rate costs.

On a 50,000 won balance, the two fixed charges come to 15,000 won before the exchange rate . EZL says itself that on a small balance the transfer can cost more than the balance. Below about 13,500 won the two fees alone take the whole balance, and the exchange rate takes a little more, so keeping the card for the next trip is the better refund.

Does a Cashbee card expire?

EZL’s Korean refund page says its own cards have no separate expiry date, and that the whole recorded balance can be refunded on request while you hold the physical card. So a balance left over from this trip is still there on the next one. Keep the card, not just a photo of its number.

Cashbee card in Busan, and the Busan cards that are not Cashbee

A Cashbee card in Busan follows the same EZL table, since it has no city column. The kiosk route also works there: on DOZN’s list, Busan has kiosks in Seomyeon, Haeundae, Gwangalli and Gamcheon Culture Village. EZL also offers visit refunds in Busan, which T-money’s refund list does not (see the Busan and Gimhae T-money page).

Busan’s own cards are a separate case. EZL’s site lists mybi and Busan Hanaro as affiliates, but EZL’s page limits balance refunds of working cards to EZL and Cashbee cards. Its faulty-card table does take mybi and Busan Hanaro, paid into an account. mybi has its own page, and it covers mybi cards only. Its store table lists GS25 and 7-Eleven at 20,000 won or less, for a fee of 200 won for every 10,000 of balance, and no CU or emart24. It adds Busan Bank and Kyongnam Bank for up to 30,000 won on the spot, and up to 9만원 into an account at that bank.

Busan Hanaro’s own refund page is not read here. A working Hanaro card has neither EZL’s store table nor mybi’s to rely on, so ask EZL’s customer centre on 1644-0006 (weekdays 09:00 to 18:00).

What I would do with a Cashbee card on the last day

Check the balance at a convenience store the evening before. Under 20,000 won, refund it at any of the four chains. Between 20,000 and 30,000 won, go to a CU. Over 30,000 won, find a DOZN kiosk in the city, or ride the balance down until it fits a CU. Do it before the airport, because the airport has no kiosk on DOZN’s list.

What is not checked here yet

The store tables, kiosk fees and head-office rules were read off EZL’s Korean refund pages, its English guide for foreigners, mybi’s refund page and DOZN’s kiosk list on 2 October 2026. None of the refund rules on the EZL pages carries a date. Treat them as standing rules rather than this year’s notice.

Five things are unconfirmed, and here is what each one changes:

• Which of EZL’s ceilings a cashier applies. If a CU refuses a balance between 20,000 and 30,000 won, that is EZL’s summary page in action. Spend a few thousand won and come back, or use a kiosk.
• Whether every DOZN kiosk refunds. DOZN’s list says “Top-up”, not refund. If the machine offers no refund, ask EZL on 1644-0006 before trying another one.
• Whether a T-money subway counter takes a Cashbee card. Neither company says so. If one does, it is a bonus, not a plan.
• Whether a foreigner can use the Shinhan or Woori ATM route. EZL’s table counts it per resident registration number and says nothing about foreign registration numbers. If you live here, try it before posting the card to the head office.
• Busan Hanaro’s own table. Not read. Treat a Hanaro card as unknown and phone before relying on a store.

If you have cashed out a Cashbee card at a CU or a DOZN kiosk recently, tell me what it paid and where, and this page will carry the answer with its date.