Paying bills in South Korea

Hi

Even I have only 1 month experience I try to answer.

The bills are not so high in Korea, I have received just 5000 Won for electricity for a month.
And the electricity supports my heating system and cooking)

Paying bills is even easier, my friends pays it online by some korean apps.
However you can go with the bill paper to any GS25 shop to pay.

So don't worry about this, it is not a issue here)

Hi,

Paying bills are one of the important tasks every month. That includes your rent, electricity bill, water bill, gas bill and internet/phone bills. Mostly I prefer online payment using the bank website for rent. others I pay using the ATM machine. The problem will be knowing the language and their script. I sought help from my Korean Colleague for the first time. Then noted the procedure and from then on, I do it regularly.

Regarding penalties for skipping the payments, I did once skip my gas bill. But did not receive any penalty but the cumulative amount has to be paid in the subsequent month. If you do not pay for 3 months in a stretch, you will receive a call from the agency to remit the bill immediately or else, the service may be withheld.

The other option is visiting the bank and paying the bills and one more option is to go through the agency website to pay the bill. But both require, Korean Proficiency. Which of course I do not have.

Best wishes
Vijay

It seems very easy to pay bills and rent via bank transfer. We rent a house, and our electricity and water are separate. We have to obtain gas for our heat and water heat via a gas company down the street that comes to fill the boiler when needed. We also get our gas for the stove/oven and clothes dryer via propane tanks which come from somewhere else. These we pay with cash. Boilers and propane tanks seem to come with houses but not apartments. Not sure if there are late penalties. We were out of town when the electric bill was due to come in, and the window for paying is a little short, but it came after we returned home. Bills don't seem to come monthly. We paid our August electricity in October.

I order a lot of stuff through GMarket, which accepts my US credit card. Despite very good credit, it is nearly impossible to get a Korean credit card. However, the US card works almost anywhere.

One thing to note: Electricity is not a set amount per KW. Apparently one is billed different rates based on how much is used in comparison to neighbors. So if you use twice as much, you could be billed three times as much. We were warned about the high cost of electricity, but our bills have been very reasonable. We primarily used the dehumidifier in the hot months and ran the a/c at night. We were very comfortable.

I have a "villa" type apartment that I share with a colleague in South Korea.  There are a lot of American Service Members in South Korea, so the areas near a U.S. military installation will have real estate professionals dedicated to serving expats (American, or at least English-speaking, in particular).  We pay our rent, (optional) water filter, electric, high-speed internet, and gas bill each month to the real estate broker, who gives us signed and stamped receipts for our payments.  Our water bill is included in our rent, but I have heard from other colleagues that their's is very inexpensive.  Some  of our colleagues also pay a maintenance fee for their apartments, but their rents are much lower than ours.  We receive the bills for electric, Internet and gas in our mailbox each month.

This all being said, the frequency is monthly.  There are different payment dates for each one, and fairly soon after receiving the bill, usually within a week.  We pay in cash to the broker, either South Korean Won or U.S. Dollar.

Thanks so much for the info about billings
Best regards,
Andrew