Photo = Getty Image Bank
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Eight days after the start of the service to convert credit card points into cash, points worth 77.8 billion won were lost to the bank account. It means that card members received 10 billion won of’replacement points’ a day.
According to the Financial Services Commission on the 14th, the integrated card point inquiry and account transfer monetization service, which began on the 5th, was used 6.68 million times in 8 days. The amount of points converted into cash was 77.8 billion won. An official from the Financial Services Commission said, “We have built a system for the purpose of not only using the points accumulated by card members at affiliated stores, but also putting them into a bank account and using them for cash. ) Has been converted into cash.”
In Korea, as of the end of 2019, there are 110 million credit cards and debit cards each. Points earned through these cards were 3.4 trillion won in 2019 alone, and 2.4 trillion won was unused.
More than 96% of card points are used, and after the expiration of points (5 years), the economic value that members lose was 117.1 billion to 1390 billion won every year for the last five years. Card companies have donated about 5 to 10 billion won each year to the Credit Card Social Contribution Foundation using the extinction points. The remaining extinction points are taken back by the card companies.
Cashing of card points has been possible since 2018, but there were not many members investing time to change points, which may not even know how much, because they had to visit the website of the card company. Using the Credit Finance Association and KFTC’s app, you can send all credit card companies’ points to your bank account in about 3 minutes. Since Hyundai Card’s M point is not 1 won, he participated in the monetization service by introducing H coin.
At the beginning of the implementation of the point monetization service, the number of users rapidly increased, and the system of the Korea Credit Finance Association and KFTC became a’challenge’, resulting in service interruption. An official from the Financial Services Commission said, “The service was temporarily suspended due to a large number of consumers, but we are constantly checking to ensure that related organizations can closely cooperate to provide stable services.”
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The company that generated the most points in cash was Shinhan Card, the number one in the card industry. All points worth 17.8 billion won were lost in cash. Samsung Card and KB Kookmin Card earned 14.5 billion won and 10.6 billion won respectively.
Lotte Card was the place with the least amount of cash. At Lotte Card, only 930 million won worth of points went to the bank. This is less than 1.2% of the total amount of cash. Lotte Card is a company that competes for No. 5 in the card industry. An official at Lotte Card explained, “Some card companies often lose access to the system.” “This is because the Loan Finance Association operated the service without taking into account the circumstances of each company and not being able to coordinate.” On the 14th, a week after the operation of the Lotte Card service, unlike other card companies, cashing was not performed properly.
The timing of depositing points for each card company is slightly different for each company. BC Shinhan KB Kookmin Woori Nonghyup Card is deposited immediately upon application. For Hyundai Hana Card, deposit is required immediately upon application, but if you apply after a certain time (Hyundai 11 pm, Hana 8 pm), money will be received on the next business day. At Samsung Lotte City Post Office, you can check the cash currency on the business day following the application date. If the application for credit card point deposit is completed normally, cancellation is not possible.
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An official from the Financial Services Commission said, “If you request a fee, card password, CVC information, etc. in the name of depositing card points, it may be voice phishing, so please be careful.” In no case are they asked to provide passwords or CVC numbers.”
Reporter Park Jong-seo [email protected]
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