James and I don't have a definite return date to the US yet, but we know we will be in Korea for at least a few months. While we are being spontaneous, it makes it hard to settle ourselves in Seoul for the short term.....or so we thought. We found out that for our big ticket items, we can commit to the contract term, but if we want to leave earlier, we would just need to find someone to take over the contract. Our big ticket items were housing, cell phone and a gym. Housing is usually a 1 year lease, cell phone is 2 and a gym is usually month to month (same as in the US).
Housing - while it is possible to find short term housing and air bnb is available, we found out that it is much cheaper to commit to a 1 year lease. However, if we need to leave earlier, we need to contact our real estate agent and pay a finder's fee for them to find another tenant to take over the lease. So easy! The cost is a fraction of one month's rent! Side note: most apartment hunting in Seoul is done through a real estate agent. There are many of them and they are quite helpful.
Cell phone - you can get a prepaid phone but we found that it was more expensive to do so. A regular phone contract is for 2 years but you can find someone else to take over your contract for no additional cost. Side note: opening a cell phone account requires an active bank account at a Korean bank because a cell phone in Korea is like a piece of identification.
Gym - we got a great deal on our gym but we had to pay up front for a year. If we do not stay the whole year, we can just transfer our memberships to someone else.
This really takes the stress out of being here for a short time and not having to worry about breaking the bank!
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