ATM Access in Korea During Public Holidays: What Stays Open

Korean bank branches close completely on public holidays. No exceptions, no skeleton staff behind the counter. If you land in Korea during Seollal (설날, Lunar New Year) or Chuseok (추석, the autumn harvest holiday), the bank you were counting on will have its shutters down. The good news: most cash machines in the country don't care what day it is.

Here's what actually stays open, what gets locked, and where the fees creep up.

Which Korean Holidays Shut the Banks

Every bank branch nationwide closes on official public holidays: New Year's Day, Seollal, Independence Movement Day (March 1), Children's Day, Buddha's Birthday, Memorial Day, Liberation Day, Chuseok, National Foundation Day, Hangul Day, and Christmas. Branches also close on election days when a national vote is held.

Seollal and Chuseok hit travelers hardest because they run three official days, not one. Every commercial bank nationwide shuts for the full stretch. In 2026, Chuseok runs from Thursday, September 24 through Saturday, September 26, with the main holiday falling on Friday the 25th. The 26th is a Saturday, and a regular Sunday follows right after, so the practical closed stretch runs four days rather than three. Seollal works the same way most years: three official days, sometimes stretched further by an adjacent weekend. Check the current year's calendar before you fly, since the dates shift annually with the lunar calendar. See our Seoul Lunar New Year opening hours guide for what else shuts down alongside the banks.

What Stays Open: ATMs Don't Observe Holidays

Cash machines run on a different system from the branch counter. They keep working. Automated teller machines generally operate around the clock, including on public holidays, and online and mobile banking apps stay live too. That covers withdrawals, balance checks, and transfers between Korean accounts, holiday or not.

The catch is which machine you're standing in front of. Two ATMs can sit ten meters apart and behave completely differently once a holiday hits.

The Branch-Lobby Trap

Many bank ATMs sit inside a small vestibule attached to the branch, not out on the open street. Walk up to one of these after the branch has locked for the night and the "24/7" sticker turns out to describe the machine's uptime, not your access to the room. On a holiday, that door stays locked all day. The machine inside might be fully operational. You just can't reach it.

Standalone ATMs, the ones bolted to an outside wall or standing in a subway concourse, don't have this problem. Convenience store ATMs never have it either, because there's no bank lobby to lock.

Where Foreign Cards Actually Work

Not every machine takes a foreign-issued card, holiday or not. Look for the words Global ATM, International ATM, or Global Service on the casing, or a row of network logos: Visa, Mastercard, Plus, Cirrus, JCB, UnionPay. A plain domestic ATM, even a shiny new one, can reject a card issued outside Korea.

Your most reliable bet during a holiday is a convenience store. Machines carrying a "Global ATM" sign at CU, GS25, and 7-Eleven run 24/7 and accept most international Visa, Mastercard, and Maestro cards. In Korean, look for 세븐일레븐 (7-Eleven), GS25, or CU (씨유) signage, with a separate Global ATM sticker on the machine itself, usually in blue or green.

Fees stack, and they are not fixed nationwide. Several Korean-side operators (bank-branch and convenience store) charge somewhere in the ₩3,000-6,000 range per withdrawal, though the exact figure depends on the bank or machine operator and can change without notice. The machine always shows the fee on screen before you confirm, so read it rather than assume. On top of that Korean-side charge, your home bank adds its own foreign transaction fee, often a flat amount plus 1-3% of the withdrawal. That second charge usually costs more than the Korean side does. Check your card issuer's foreign ATM fee before you leave home, not after.

When the Machines Run Dry

Holidays push cash demand up, not down. Korean families hand out cash gifts at Seollal and Chuseok, so people queue for fresh bills in the days before. Demand for new notes climbs sharply right before the holiday, even as the overall number of bank ATMs nationwide has been shrinking for years. Some banks run mobile branch vans at rest stops and transit hubs during the rush to keep bills flowing.

Practical takeaway: withdraw what you need two or three days before a major holiday starts, not the morning of. A convenience store machine that's merely low on ₩50,000 notes on a normal Tuesday can run genuinely empty on day two of Chuseok.

If you're caught short, app-based transfers still work. Toss, KakaoBank, and Wise all move money on holidays, and transfers between Korean bank accounts settle in real time. A friend or host with a Korean account can send won to your card or transit balance instantly, even mid-holiday. Our guide on how to pay in Korea as a tourist covers which apps actually need a Korean phone number first.

Your Holiday Cash Checklist

Land with more won than usual if your trip overlaps Seollal or Chuseok. Currency exchange counters at Incheon and Gimpo often keep longer hours than a bank branch would, holiday or not, so swapping cash on arrival is still realistic. See our Incheon Airport currency exchange guide for counter locations and typical rates.

A few habits that save a headache:

• Carry one card for Global ATMs and one as backup. Not every issuer's cards get accepted everywhere, even at machines marked Global ATM.
• Withdraw before the holiday starts, not during it.
• Keep ₩50,000-100,000 in reserve cash once you know a multi-day closure is coming.
• Grab a Korea eSIM before you land so Naver Map or a Global ATM locator app works the moment you're off the plane. Finding which nearby machine is open matters more on a holiday than any other day.
• If your itinerary has you landing right as a holiday starts, book your airport transfer in advance so you're not hunting for cash to pay a driver on arrival.

Transit cards behave normally through all this. T-money top-up machines at subway stations take cash or card any day of the year, holidays included, and most accept the same ATM-style cash you'd pull from a convenience store.

Street markets and small restaurants are where cash still matters most on a holiday, since some stay closed and the ones that open may prefer cash if their card reader needs a technician who's also off for the holiday. Carrying a reserve buys you options the banks won't give you that day.