Disaster Relief Fund 'Donation Cancellation' Anytime... Card Companies Complete System Implementation

Credit Card Companies Complete Development of Donation Correction Systems One After Another
Donations Can Be Changed Until the 31st, but Extensions Are Possible

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] As applications for the 14 trillion won-scale 'Emergency Disaster Relief Fund' have exceeded 80%, credit card companies are enhancing customer convenience services such as donation correction and usage guidance. Since 60% of households applying for the Emergency Disaster Relief Fund received the support funds via cards, the convenience for those receiving the disaster relief funds by card is expected to increase.

According to the industry on the 21st, since the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and credit card companies agreed on the 14th to establish their own donation refund system, most card companies have completed the development of related systems. Samsung Card and BC Card have been providing donation change services since the 16th, two days after the agreement. KB Kookmin Card has been operating a system allowing donation corrections since the 18th, and Shinhan, Hyundai, and NH Nonghyup Cards have been doing so since the 19th. Lotte Card and Hana Card also plan to have related systems in place within this week to allow modification of donation amounts.

The issue of donation modification has been controversial since the Emergency Disaster Relief Fund application began on the 11th. Because the support fund application screen and the donation application screen were not separated, many cases of accidental donations occurred, leading to a flood of demands for improvement. Initially, if donation corrections were not possible on the day of application, the only way was to visit the community center in person later to receive the amount back as local gift certificates. However, with this system development, donations can be corrected anytime, not only on the day of application.

The period during which donation amounts can be changed is until the 31st of this month. Some have raised the possibility of an extension. NH Nonghyup Card is informing that donation amount changes are possible until 11:30 PM on the 31st. This is because the government initially discussed the period for applying for disaster relief funds online via credit or debit cards until the 31st. The industry expects that the donation change period may be extended according to government policy.

The Emergency Disaster Relief Fund has been applied for and paid out at a rapid pace, with 84% of all eligible households applying within ten days of the start of applications. According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, from the 11th to the 20th since the start of applications, 18.3 million households, or 84.3% of the total 21.71 million eligible households, applied for the disaster relief fund. The total application amount is 11.5203 trillion won. Among these, households applying via credit or debit card charging methods accounted for 60.2% of the total, showing that those receiving disaster relief funds by card are overwhelming in number.

Accordingly, credit card companies are rolling out various services one after another. Currently, most card companies provide regional merchant search services where users can check where the disaster relief funds can be used. Services have been developed to suit customer convenience, including search-type and map-type options. For households that moved their address after March 29, the government plans to improve related systems once specific policies are established to allow the use of support funds in the new city or province.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.