SOCAR (쏘카) is an app-based, car-sharing, hiring, renting service. It’s remarkably easy to use after you have registered. Pick up a car from one of many locations all over Korea, drive it, return it, all without having to speak to a human!! [updated June 2023]

Steps

• Registration
• Using SOCAR
  – Reserving
  – Fees
  – Picking up your SOCAR
  – Using SOCAR
  – Returning your SOCAR
• Tips
• Annoyances
  • About foreign names on drivers licenses and Alien Registration Cards
  • Licenses less than a year old

Registering

Requirements

• a Korean drivers’ license that you’ve had for at least 1 year OR a license for a lesser time and you visiting a virtual driving test centre (my friend’s experience)
  
  I got my Korean license by going to a driving office in Seoul, submitting my current UK driver’s license and getting a Korean one in return. If I recall, it required filling in a form and having an eye test. NOTE: this is a basic license that won’t allow you to drive larger cars like vans or minibuses. However it’s perfectly fine for any compact, saloon, or SUV. If you want a full license, you’ll need to take a proper driving test here; apparently, that’s quite easy to do.
  
• a credit card or other payment method you are confident will work online in Korea.
• access to the Korean App Store for iPhone in order to download the app (true in 2019)
  SOCAR app: Google Play or Apple iOS
• Google Translate on your phone for translating all the screenshots – or ask a friendly Korean speaker to help!

Process

Getting set up as a foreigner with a low-level of Korean language wasn’t so easy… I was screenshotting each screen during registration, translating them with Google Translate’s camera/image function, then following each step. It’s a little slow, but entirely manageable as the steps are quite straightforward. The only hiccup (for me) occurred when the app tried to validate my license. That is to do with the name on my Korean ARC/foreigner identification card not EXACTLY matching the name on my driver’s license. I’ve explained more about this below as it’s to do with database field sizes and other bureaucracy…snore… Anyway, I emailed them through their website using Google Translate to create the email. I sent it with photo scans of my driver’s licence and ARC. I’m not sure if this will work in 2023, but there are definitely ways! Fortunately, the SOCAR website can be easily translated automatically with Google in case you need to check the FAQ page.

My license was approved in a matter of hours and I was all set up and ready to go!

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Using SOCAR

Reserving a car

• choose a date and time to take and return the car
• choose a suitable location where a car is available to pick up on the map.
• select one of the available cars that suits your needs and budget.
  *Note: in addition to the time-based usage fee, each car has different rates per kilometre you drive; this is how SOCAR works out fuel charges, and this is charged when you return the car
• choose an insurance and waiver level.
• confirm; you’ll be charged the initial fee immediately

Fees

There are three fees / costs involved:

• The basic rental fee for the time you book it for (paid while booking);
  Gasoline cars are cheaper than electric cars in general, but check the coupons!
• The car and driving insurance (three different options, paid while booking);
• The final fee for distance travelled (you are billed per kilometre after returning the car);
  Electric cars cost about ~70 won / km, gasoline cars from ~160+ won / km.

Picking up the car

• make sure you have Bluetooth enabled
• go to the location about 10 or 20 minutes before the time
• find the car by checking the license number
• at 10 minutes before the allotted time, you can start the ‘check-out’ process by pressing one of the buttons on the app
• comment on the external cleanliness of the car
• start taking photos of the exterior of the car from multiple angles; the app will help you by telling you from which points to photograph from. Of course, you are looking out for dents and scratches; make sure you photograph these!
• The app will also ask separately if there are any major dents or scratches.
• upload the photos and wait for confirmation (you can’t upload any more photos once the app ‘releases’ the car to you
• unlock the car with the unlock button on the app: YOU NEED Bluetooth enabled for this!

Using the car

• make sure your phone has power; Bluetooth is the ONLY way to get into the car!
  don’t leave your phone in the car; some cars lock automatically while you’re away and if the phone is inside, you won’t be able to unlock it
• make sure you have mobile data
• the car has Hi-PASS in it meaning you can use the blues lanes on the highways-you drive through the automatic payment lanes; you’ll be billed for tolls after you return the car
• use the SOCAR credit card on the inside of the windscreen to refuel (and even clean!) the car. Etiquette seems to be to leave it at least a quarter or third full(?)
• use the app to lock and unlock it
• don’t hurt it!

Returning the car

• if you can, refuel it as a courtesy to the next driver
• park it where you found it
• press the button on the app to start the return procedure
• answer the questions about whether you’ve left anything inside, and it’s clean, etc
• leave a note about where you parked the car (simple message or address; Google Translate, or use English) and upload a photo of the parked car
• lock the car for the final time
• you’ll get the final charge for the kilometres you drove

I hope this guide helps in some way. I’ll be adding photos later.

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Tips

Make sure your phone doesn’t die! Your phone needs to be charged for you to access the app and use SOCAR; get a battery pack for your phone if you think this might be a problem.

Coupons: Go to the coupon section of the SOCAR app and download coupons before you start looking to reserve a car; there are a lot of surprisingly good deals. It’s best to do this only a few days before you intend to book the car as some coupons have time limits. There are also usually special deals for week days, and short rentals.

Gasoline or electric: If you are driving long distances, try to get an electric car; they cost around 70 won per kilometre (gasoline cars cost from 160+ won per kilometre). However, electric cars tend to be more expensive to rent so you need to do some calculations to see what’s going to be the cheaper option. Also, check the coupons! There are often deals for electric cars.

Multi-day trips: This is a tricky one; let’s say you’re going away to a place for three days – do you rent the SOCAR for three days, or make three separate bookings for the three days so you’re not paying for the time the car is parked at night?! Again, it depends on the type of travelling you’re going to do and the coupon options available. In my experience, if you can get a multi-day deal at a set rate, it’s probably best to rent for the whole period. If coupons aren’t available, then return the car in the evening and rebook it (or another one) for the next day (you can have multiple bookings in advance as long as they don’t overlap). Here are some real life cases:

• Example 1: I stayed in Mokpo. I rented a SOCAR to travel around the island of Jindo, then returned the car in the evening and spent the next day exploring Mokpo on foot. The third day, I rented another SOCAR and drove to Wolchulsan for a hike then returned the car in the evening. Of course this requires planning but I saved money because there weren’t any multi-day deals available and I was staying near lots of SOCAR zones.
• Example 2: I stayed in Namhae for four days. My accommodation wasn’t near a SOCAR zone. This meant not being able to return the car at the end of each day. I did however get a four day deal coupon so it was a reasonable price and worked out a bit cheaper than using Lotte rental.
• Example 3: I stayed near Naejangsan. This was overnight, far away from any SOCAR zones, so no option but to rent overnight. Easy decision!

SOCAR vs other rental services: I used Lotte Rentacar exclusively before signing up to SOCAR; now I use both depending on how I expect to be using the car and what deals are available. Btw, my experiences with Lotte have been generally very positive. In my experience, if you intend to drive long distances, you will probably end up paying more with SOCAR than Lotte Rentacar. With Lotte, you only pay for the gas you use (you can drive economically, choose where to gas up), plus you will get money returned to you if you return the car early. With SOCAR, you aren’t given significant credit if you return the car early, and you’ll always be paying a flat fee for distance however economically you drive (at least, as far as I know). My point is, it’s best to compare.

Annoyances

About foreign names on drivers licenses and Alien Registration Cards (ARC): The immigration database stores full passport versions of your name but the driving authority database has limited space and will truncate the name if it’s longer than the allowed length. This can cause problems when places try to match your drivers license details to the main immigration database. On my driver’s license, my full name is written in a shorter way than on my ARC, meaning that the SOCAR app couldn’t automatically validate my license while trying to sign up. I ended up emailing them and explaining, and it was sorted out. If you are lucky enough to have a shorter name and it matches the name exactly on the license, great!

Licenses less than a year old: A friend of mine recently signed up with SOCAR. His Korean license was less than a year old. He (or his Korean speaking wife) called the customer service centre and they told him he could go to a place where they’d do a screen-based, virtual driving test! It cost about 100,000 won(?)> He did the test which involved driving in circles, and parking, and then his license was approved.

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