{Topics on 03.31} Please Make Sure to Study Hard in Advance & Post a Comment

[Doo ^^]

[TOPIC 01] Foreign cell phone users often ignored

Navid Firouzbakhsh, an Austrian manager at an IT company in Seoul, feels he isn’t treated fairly by mobile carriers. “I am used to using services in the United Kingdom, the United States and countries in Europe.

“There foreigners get mileage points, and they have so many offers such as free upgrades, free handsets. Here we have little information about anything,” he said.

In Korea, he said that he is often left behind on tips about how to get bonus points and accompanying benefits. It’s not clear whether the carriers intentionally neglect their duty of better informing foreign clients, at an additional cost, or not.

The number of foreigners in the country stood at 1.41 million as of last September, nearing 3 percent of the total population, and most of them are using mobile phones.

They are, however, facing many inconveniences in a country that boasts of a high penetration for mobile services.

Li Chunhua who is from China and studying in Korea must use a mobile service subscribed to by her Korean friend. “I tried to subscribe on my own, but I gave up after visiting a shop. The inconvenience made me think they are forcing foreigners to borrow names of Korean friends instead of subscribing on their own.”

The first hurdle comes when they try to get a mobile phone. Besides the language problem, foreigners are perplexed when mobile shops reject them. While locals would be welcome at any mobile shop found on every corner in the country, some of them won’t serve foreigners. Firouzbakhsh, who wanted to get an iPhone, for instance, had to go to KT headquarters in Gwanghwamun to subscribe to the service as the mobile shop near his home in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, told him to go there.

“Foreign consumers can subscribe to services at any of our mobile shops around the country, but it seems that the employee of that shop had a problem serving a foreign customer,” said a spokeswoman for KT. She explained that KT strengthened its services for foreign customers from 2010, running Twitter and blogs, and simplifying the subscription process to that for locals.

It also has some special shops dedicated to foreigners, including one in Itaewon. However, having to search for bigger agents can be a nuisance.

Sometimes, foreigners must have more qualifications than locals. SK Telecom, for instance, require a security deposit from some foreigners between 50,000 won and 200,000 won, depending on their visa type.

Foreigners also complain of the lack of contracts in English or other languages. Mobile carriers say they do have contracts in English and sometimes Chinese, but they aren’t available at many shops.

The inconvenience continues after subscription. While locals can immediately contact a call center by pressing 114 whenever they have any inquiry or problem using the service, this is useless for foreigners due to the language barrier.

When contacted, mobile carriers said they do have call centers for foreigners. “When a foreign user calls the call center, he or she gets automatically connected to our staff in charge of foreign consumers,” an LG Uplus spokesperson said. KT operates a call center for foreigners at (02) 2190-1180, where services are available in English, Chinese and Japanese. The number for SK Telecom’s foreign call center is 080-252-5011 to access English and Japanese services.

They also operate websites for foreigners. However, most of the foreigners don’t even know that foreign call centers in English exist. While local users are offered diverse services such as paying bills or sending text messages directly using the website, the pages for foreigners are usually limited to just an introduction of the company and its services.

1.  How long have you used the cell phone for a day? Where do you usually use it?

2. What complaints do you have using your mobile phone?

3. What are the differences between Korea mobile carriers and other countries'?

4. How does a mobile phone change your life?

5. Do you think a Smart Phone makes us really smarter than before or not?

[TOPIC 02] Credit card spending up 24.9% in Feb.

Korea's credit card spending shot up 24.9 percent in February from a year earlier due mainly to a rise in consumer prices, including higher gasoline costs, a credit association said Wednesday.

Purchases made with credit cards totaled 39.2 trillion won ($34.9 billion) in February, up 7.8 trillion won from a year earlier, according to the Credit Finance Association (CREFIA).

The on-year surge came as the country's consumer prices grew 3.1 percent last month from a year ago, with the cost of gasoline soaring due to rising global oil prices, the CREFIA said.

Transactions made at gas stations jumped 38.7 percent on-year to 1.09 trillion won last month, with the spending from online shopping malls also surging 57.8 percent to 1.15 trillion won.

Compared with the previous month, however, credit card spending declined by 1.4 trillion won, or 3.5 percent, because consumption increased during the Lunar New Year's holiday in January, the association added. (Yonhap)

1. Is it easy to have a credit card in your country? How many credit cards do you have? What do you usually buy with a credit card?

2. What age is permissible to have a credit card? Why?

3. What are the good or bad things using credit cards?

4. What factors should we consider before applying for a credit card?

5. Do you think that when Koreans will spend more using their credit card, there will be another financial cirisis?

[violet]

1등!

[Julie(김지애)]

재밌겠네요...벌써 기대되네요 ㅋ 이번주에 처음가는 건데 따뜻하면 맞아주실거죠?ㅋ

[J.One]

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[Teddy(두희)]

환영합니다~~~^^

[Gina(진아)]

참석!!ㅎㅎㅎ

[다잘될꼬야]

정참^^

[솔이오빠]

참석하겠습니다~

[siron.영일]

참석 예정~

[jaguar]

참석 ㅋㅋ

[정정]

정참~~콜입니다^^ SEE YOU SOON~~

[다리아]

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[claire]

불참입니다~ 다른 약속이 있어요~ㅜ.ㅠ

[시카고 장]

처음입니다만, 오늘 참여해도 되는지요?^^