The street fines from Part 1 are hard to collect once you’ve already left the country. This part is different. Everything here is money that gets pulled straight from your card by the rental company, written into your immigration record, or taken from you on the spot at the airport.
The short answer
- Electric kickboards require a license. No license is ₩100,000, no helmet ₩20,000, riding two-up ₩40,000. The rental apps never check — the police do.
- A Chinese International Driving Permit doesn't work in Korea. China never signed the Geneva or Vienna conventions.
- Rental-car speeding fines always get collected. The company pays first, then charges your deposit or card.
- Overstaying runs up to ₩100,000 a day, capped at ₩30 million. Leaving voluntarily can reduce it.
- Getting caught without a customs declaration adds 40% of the duty as a penalty. Declare voluntarily and they cut it 30% instead.
Electric kickboards — the app never asks, the police do
Shared kickboards are parked on every Seoul street, and the app unlocks one with a quick QR scan. It never asks for a license. Which is exactly why the “I didn’t know I needed one” story keeps repeating itself.
Under Korea’s Road Traffic Act, an electric kickboard is classified as a personal mobility device (PM), and you need at least a moped (motorized bicycle) license to ride one.
🛴 Personal mobility device (PM) fines by violation
| Violation | Fine | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Riding without a license | ₩100,000 | On the rider |
| Riding under the influence | ₩100,000 | Refusing a breath test adds more |
| Riding two or more people | ₩40,000 | Over capacity |
| No helmet | ₩20,000 | Per rider |
The amounts stack if you break several at once
Two people on one kickboard, no helmets, no license — that's ₩100,000 (no license) + ₩40,000 (two-up) + ₩20,000 (no helmet) = ₩160,000. More than a full day's travel budget.
Most shared kickboards don't come with a helmet at all. There's a running criticism that this basically invites the violation — but enforcement lands on the rider, not the company.
Parking is a problem too. Since 2021, Seoul has been towing illegally parked shared kickboards. The towing fee is ₩40,000 plus ₩700 per 30 minutes of storage. In principle the operator gets billed — but depending on the app’s terms, that cost can be passed back to you. Park exactly where the app tells you to.
Towed immediately
- Roadways, subway station entrances, and within 10 m of a bus stop
- Crosswalk approaches, on tactile paving (braille blocks), the middle of a sidewalk
- Near fire hydrants and firefighting facilities
On a regular sidewalk elsewhere, you get towed once three hours pass after a report.
Bicycles — yes, even Ddareungi counts under the Road Traffic Act
Seoul’s public bike, Ddareungi, needs no license — but the Road Traffic Act still applies in full.
- Bicycle DUI — a blood alcohol level of 0.03% or higher is a ₩30,000 on-the-spot fine. Refuse the breath test and it jumps to ₩100,000. The statute technically allows up to a ₩200,000 fine, detention, or a petty fine, but in practice the roadside ticket is ₩30,000.
- Riding on the sidewalk — bikes are meant to use the road or a bike lane. Where sidewalk riding is permitted, you must go slow, and endangering pedestrians gets you ticketed.
- Riding across a crosswalk — you’re supposed to get off and walk it. If you ride across and cause an accident, you’re treated as a vehicle driver, not a pedestrian.
Rental cars — the one fine that always gets collected
Start with the license. Every year, travelers get turned away at the airport or the rental counter over this.
🚗 Foreign driver's licenses accepted in Korea
| Type | Can you drive in Korea? |
|---|---|
| International Driving Permit from a Geneva Convention (1949) country | Yes |
| IDP from a Vienna Convention (1968) country | Yes, since 2002 |
| Countries in neither convention (China, etc.) | No |
| Only your home-country license, no IDP | No |
Driving without an IDP carries up to 6 months in prison or a fine of up to ₩2 million, or detention. This isn’t a traffic ticket — it’s a criminal offense.
Three things to check before you fly
- Whether your home country is a Geneva or Vienna signatory — if not, even a freshly issued IDP won't work in Korea.
- The IDP's validity (usually one year) and the vehicle class stamped on it.
- You must carry the IDP, your home license, and your passport together. Missing any one of the three can be treated as unlicensed driving.
Why speed cameras always get their money
Speed and red-light cameras can’t identify who was driving. Korean law therefore bills the registered owner of the vehicle when the driver can’t be identified — and for a rental car, the registered owner is the rental company.
The two numbers look contradictory, but there’s a reason. The unpaid pile comes from private cars or rentals where no deposit was held. If you rented normally with a card on file, the company pays the fine and simply charges you back — plus a processing fee.
Practical tips for renting a car
- The charge can arrive weeks or even months after you leave. Don't relax just because everything settled at drop-off.
- Jeju has a dense network of cameras, and most tickets sent to tourists come from speed and red-light cameras.
- Parking violations add separate towing and storage fees.
- Drinking and driving is a whole different category — criminal penalties plus possible deportation.
Overstaying — even one day leaves a record
This is where the biggest numbers for tourists come from.
🛂 Main immigration violations
| Violation | Legal basis | Amount / penalty |
|---|---|---|
| Overstaying your permitted stay | Immigration Control Act | Up to ₩100,000 per day, capped at ₩30 million |
| Working outside your status / illegal employment | Immigration Control Act, Art. 94 | Up to 3 years in prison or a ₩20 million fine |
| Failing to report an address change (registered foreigners) | Immigration Control Act, Art. 36 & 100 | Administrative fine up to ₩1 million |
Where short-stay tourists actually get caught
- Miscounting the 90 visa-free days — people trip over whether arrival day counts as day 1 or day 0, and overstay by a day. Trust the departure date stamped in your passport.
- Flight cancellations or illness — unavoidable reasons only count if you report them to the immigration office before your stay expires. Explaining afterward is too late.
- Working on a tourist visa — part-time jobs, getting paid for a shoot, even monetizing videos can all count as employment. This is a criminal provision, not an administrative fine.
- Staying past 90 days means registering as a foreign resident within 90 days of entry — and if you move after registering, you have 14 days to report the change.
The process escalates: a departure recommendation, then a departure order, then a deportation order. Saying you’ll leave voluntarily usually gets more lenient treatment and can reduce the fine — but the reduction is discretionary, not guaranteed.
Customs — declare it and they knock money off; skip it and 40% gets added on
Korea’s customs system hands you a clear incentive to declare voluntarily. The two directions run exactly opposite, and the gap is huge.
🧳 Duty-free allowances on arrival
| Item | Duty-free allowance |
|---|---|
| General goods | US$800 |
| Alcohol | Up to 2 L & under US$400 |
| Cigarettes | 200 cigarettes |
| Perfume | 100 mL |
| Cash and other means of payment | Must declare over US$10,000 |
Alcohol, cigarettes, and perfume are counted separately from the US$800 general allowance. Some people skip declaring because they assume it all gets combined — and that’s actually the move that loses money.
The short version — Part 2 cheat sheet
💰 Transport, immigration, and customs at a glance (September 2026)
| Item | Amount | How reliably collected |
|---|---|---|
| Kickboard, no license | ₩100,000 | On the spot |
| Kickboard, no helmet | ₩20,000 | On the spot |
| Kickboard, riding two-up | ₩40,000 | On the spot |
| Bicycle DUI | ₩30,000 | On the spot |
| Driving without an IDP | Up to ₩2 million fine or prison | Criminal process |
| Rental-car speeding / red light | Fine per violation + company fee | Nearly 100% |
| Overstay | Up to ₩100,000 a day | Immigration record |
| Working on a tourist visa | Up to ₩20 million fine or prison | Criminal process |
| Customs non-declaration | 40–60% of the duty | At the airport |
In one line
- On a kickboard: license, helmet, one rider. Miss any one and you're paying.
- Before you drive, check whether your home country is a convention signatory. A Chinese license won't work.
- Trust the expiry date stamped in your passport — and if you might overrun it, go to the immigration office before it lapses.
- Customs is designed so that declaring is always the cheaper side.
For the street-level fines (jaywalking, cigarette butts, vapes), see Part 1.
Sources
- Road Traffic Act Enforcement Decree (personal mobility device fines) — Easy-to-Find Legal Information (Ministry of Government Legislation)
- Road Traffic Act, Art. 156 (bicycle DUI) — Ministry of the Interior and Safety press release
- Seoul Metropolitan Government, towing of illegally parked shared kickboards — Seoul Transportation News
- Driver's license reciprocity and IDP guidance — Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Safe Travel), Korea Road Traffic Authority
- Unpaid rental-car fines by foreigners (2021–2025) — Herald Economy report
- Immigration Control Act, Art. 36, 94, 100 — National Law Information Center
- Traveler's personal effects customs clearance and duty-free allowances — Korea Customs Service