Mobile subscribers in South Korea have lost nearly 200 billion won ($178 million) worth of mileage points accumulated over six years, a lawmaker said Thursday, as many consumers remain uninformed on how to redeem benefits.

Citing a report from the Ministry of Science and ICT, Rep. Noh Woong-rae of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea noted that mileage points worth 190.5 billion won had gone down the drain since 2013 because subscribers failed to use the benefits in time.

Provided as a perk to subscribers, mileage points can be used for mobile payments or other benefits, such as the purchase of movie tickets. Leftover points become invalid after seven years.

“While consumers could use mileage points to save on telecom fees, most of them end up lost,” Rep. Noh said. “Mobile carriers have to step up their efforts to advertise the benefits to subscribers.”

Subscribers to KT and SK Telecom lost 86.7 billion won and 85.4 billion won worth of mileage points, respectively, according to Noh. Damage incurred among LG Uplus subscribers totaled 18.4 billion won.

(jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)