It’s also easy to get a Korean credit card. I’ve had 2 for nearly 10 years. Despite the fact that I’m a permanent resident, my ID number still isn’t accepted by most sites (it’s based on a different algorithm…which doesn’t make much sense since I’m a landed immigrant…just a step away from being a citizen). My money isn’t good enough for them.

PS. In Canada, all social insurance numbers are based on the same algorithm. The first digit depends on the province where a person was residing when he or she applied for a card and the numbers assigned to landed immigrants begin with a 9. Then again, it would be illegal for online stores and other websites to ask for one’s social insurance number.

http://joongangdaily.joins.com.....id=2871863
It started off with the positive news :

“Only 17 percent of those polled said they were dissatisfied with their lives in Korea”.

And then carried on with the list of whingers and complainers.

You wonder how the CPB selected their sample and phrased their questions, because it sounds like they were looking for problems.

Use a Korean name as an alias and your alien registration number; and all will be fine.

You can later use the bill you received under the alias for other things you would not other wise have access to.

PS: A quote from The Shawshank Redemption by Andy Dufresne: “You would be surprised at what you can become, open, and access in the real world once you have a library card”

Because my wife is Korean, I haven’t had all that much grief with cell phones, etc. However, not having a national ID number, it is a pain in the ass to have to rely on her for a few basics. I’d rather be able to take care of some of these things myself. And, it is odd when one KB bank turns you down for a credit card, but the one down the street has a manager who personally processes your application for you!

As for customer service, I don’t expect what I get back home (and that can suck too, even if a 15% or 20% tip may hang in the balance.) To be honest, Koreans don’t seem to get any less in the area of customer service than I do. Actually, sometimes I think the occasional salesperson or manager makes more of an effort to help because I am a foreigner. Unfortunately, were I black or of a south/southeast Asian background, this might be completely different. I think DDA’s comment on service being “great, even if uneven sometimes” is pretty accurate.

Yeah, not too persuasive. The Japanese student complains “There seem to be too many complicated procedures that foreigners have to go through to live here,” so now he knows what it’s like for foreigners in Japan.

Yeah, try to open a bank account in Japan, without a resident card, see how it goes…

My first mobile phone was a PCS, way back when, a 016 number, and the shop never had a problem with my white skin and foreign ID. Problems started in the 21 Century, I think. By then I had been married for a few years, and Da Missus took care of all these things anyway

And I’m with Robert here, lack of information, grmbl; cultural differences, yeah right, get yer ass back home. Service in Korea is great, even if uneven sometimes, and that’s one of the things Da Missus and I miss now that we’ve left – but then again we live in France, where “service” was KIA a long time ago… I still can’t get to open a [new] bank account in my home country, since I don’t have a fixed income, aka salary. Go figure.