Lose an iPhone, and the transit card balance vanishes too, leaving users furious

[Financial News] “It’s ridiculous. I used it because they said it was convenient. You can easily get a card reissued if you lose it, but they say I can’t get my balance back just because I lost my phone.”
Ms. Lee, a woman in her 20s who uses an iPhone, takes public transportation with T-money linked to Apple Pay. As usual, Lee topped up her T-money balance with 50,000 won, but ended up losing her iPhone that same day. She thought the 50,000 won she had topped up would still be there even after she bought a new iPhone, but it had disappeared. She contacted T-money to get a refund, but ultimately could not get the money back. Lee’s 50,000 won had vanished from her possession.
According to documents that Park Seong-hoon, a People Power Party lawmaker on the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee, obtained from T-money through the Financial Supervisory Service, there were 74 complaints seeking refunds for lost Apple Pay T-money balances in total, from the third quarter of last year—shortly after the service launched—through the second quarter of this year. Most appear to have been complaints from people who lost their iPhones and then requested refunds from T-money.
However, the total amount of balance these users lost is unknown, because T-money does not compile the figures separately. T-money says it cannot manage the data separately because it cannot check each card number individually.
There is only one way for Apple Pay T-money users to get their balance back: the lost iPhone must be connected to a network. In other words, its battery must not be dead, and it must be connected to Wi-Fi or mobile data. If those conditions are met, Apple Pay T-money installed on the lost iPhone is transferred to iCloud and can be restored using the Apple account on a new iPhone. This is because the T-money balance is stored and managed on a chip built into the iPhone.
However, users who have lost their phones agree that this is “unrealistic.” In most cases, they say, a lost phone’s battery is dead or it is not connected to a network. Lee said she had already lost her phone after its battery had run out, and pointed out, “How often would someone pick it up and charge it when the battery is dead? It makes no sense.”
How are the balances and interest of iPhone users who lost their Apple Pay T-money cards and cannot get their money back managed? The explanation is that balances and interest on cards unused for five years or more go toward T-money’s social contribution activities or contributions to the T-money Welfare Foundation fund. T-money added that the funds “are used for the welfare of public transportation users.”
There is considerable discontent among users who lost their iPhones and cannot get their balances refunded. Lee said, “Isn’t that taking credit for something with my money?” and added, “I hope they take measures so we can get it back somehow.”
T-money says it has no legal responsibility in this matter. Citing Supreme Court precedents, it said, “The court has ruled that it is not legally problematic for an issuer to be exempt from liability when it enters into an agreement stating that ‘the burden of reimbursement for lost funds shall be borne by the customer,’ in light of the reality that the issuer cannot take any meaningful action even after receiving a report of a lost or stolen card.” T-money says it has no technical way to return the amount to customers. It has also told customers that refunds are impossible under “Apple’s global policy.”
There are calls for measures to be put in place for users, rather than simply giving up on refunds as impossible and citing “practical constraints.”
Lawmaker Park Seong-hoon pointed out, “Because of Apple Inc.’s distorted policy and T-money’s inaction, users who lose their iPhones are losing even the balances loaded onto their transit cards.” He added, “The structure that shifts the burden onto consumers must be improved immediately, and remedies must be put in place to ensure balances can be safely refunded even when a phone is lost.”
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