Payment by credit card surpasses 60% for first time while card issuances drop


Purchases made by credit card surpassed 60 percent of all purchases made in the first quarter for the first time.

Korea’s Credit Finance Association announced on Sunday that payment by credit card reached 63.3 percent in the first quarter. It means that most purchases were done by credit cards, said the association, probably excluding small amounts below 2,000 won paid in cash.

The ratio increased almost three-fold from 2000 when it marked 23.6 percent. The ratio continually increased, reaching 43.4 percent in 2006, 45.5 percent in 2007, 49.7 percent in 2008, 52.8 percent in 2009, 56.8 percent in 2010 and 59.6 percent in 2011.

“The credit card-using-consumer lifestyle settled as the government pushed to activate credit card use in order to make transparent the tax revenue sources,” said KCFA officials in a statement.

The number of cards per person, however, dropped for the first time in five years despite the increase in card payments, from 4.8 last year to 4.7. The number had steadily increased since it marked 4 in 2008.

The number of newly issued cards was 115.6 million in the first quarter this year, which is also a decrease by 6.5 million compared with the same season last year when the figure was 122.1 million. The number of newly issued cards surpassed 100 million for the first time in 2002, and had shown a sharp increase since 2009 when it marked 106.9 million.

Financial authorities’ encouragement to get rid of dormant cards and the worsened economic conditions contributed to the decrease in card issuance, according to reports.

By Park Min-young (claire@heraldcorp.com)