Last week some people from Nonghyup came to school.
Nonghyup is a co-operative bank. It is acttually a agriculutural co-operative. Each branch is actually an independent entity. But they co operate for the common good.
Anyway I got a Visa card from them which was very interesting. Two weeks before when I was sending some money back to Australia at the same branch one of the staff members here told me that I had very little chance of getting a credit card.
THe card I got as you can see from the picture is issued to teachers or staff who work for the Ulsan board of education.
Yesterday on Saturday I tried to use my credit card online to purchase a new computer monitor. But the web site would not accept my Alien Registration number.
Everyone in Korea has a National ID. Foreigners have an Alien ID.
Unfortunally and I am not sure who is to blame here, business or government or all of them, when you purchase anything online or register on a web site you have to enter your ID number.
So Korea being the ‘most wired nation’ and aspiring to be “an international business hub” easily accepts my ID card number on web sites ?
NOPE – bloody useless!
So no ID number means you can’t join sites, you can’t purchase stuff online.