'Profitless Aljja Card' Disappearing One After Another... Consumer Benefits Only Reduced

Credit Card Companies' Profitability Declines
76 Models Discontinued in First Half... Nearly Half of Last Year's Total

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young]#. Housewife Kim Ji-eun (35) recently sighed upon hearing the news that the 'Emart KB Kookmin Card' she had been using well was being discontinued. This card was a so-called 'Gulbi Card' that shared performance and annual fees with other KB Kookmin Cards, offering substantial benefits. Kim filled the previous month's spending requirements with other cards and received discounts on Emart purchases and academy fees with the Emart KB Kookmin Card. She lamented, "Several cards with good benefits that I had since last year have been discontinued one after another," adding, "It's true that it's hard to find equally attractive services among the newly released cards recently."

Card companies facing profitability deterioration due to merchant fee reductions are discontinuing existing card issuances to cut costs. As relatively beneficial premium cards are being discontinued one after another, concerns are rising that consumer benefits are shrinking.

According to the card industry on the 20th, the 'Emart KB Kookmin Card,' popular as a Gulbi Card sharing performance and annual fees with other cards, will stop new issuance on the 31st. Lotte Card's 'Like It Fun' will also be discontinued starting next month on the 1st. Like It Fun was highly preferred due to its low annual fee and discounts on coffee and public transportation, ranking first in popularity for both last year and the first half of this year on Card Gorilla, the largest credit card specialist site in Korea.

Last month, partnership cards offering discounts or cashback through agreements with specific merchants were discontinued one after another. Shinhan Card stopped new issuance of a total of 28 cards, including three '2030' types and nine 'Big Plus' types. Woori Card also decided to discontinue 13 cards, including three types of Card Jeongseok Direct (Direct, Discount, SSO3 Check), two types of Free Travel Cards, Only (ONLY) My Card, and Woori V Railroad Mileage Card.

The number of credit cards discontinued in the first half of this year nearly reaches half of last year's total. Many of these were considered premium cards with high consumer benefits. Representative examples include the 'KB Kookmin Tantandae-ro Biz Titanium Card,' which offered substantial rewards when refueling and shopping at the three major discount stores and six major online shopping malls, and Lotte Card's 'I'm YOLO,' which provided a 1.2% payment day discount on all overseas spending regardless of the previous month's performance.

The number of discontinued cards has been increasing annually since 2017. The number of discontinued cards among the seven full-service card companies (Shinhan, Samsung, KB Kookmin, Hyundai, Lotte, Woori, Hana) rose from 73 in 2017 and 82 in 2018 to 160 last year, nearly doubling. As of July 6 this year, a total of 76 cards have been discontinued. Given this trend, there is a possibility that more cards will be discontinued than last year. Especially with the introduction of the 'Profitability Analysis System Guideline' this year, which requires card companies to release only products that can generate profits over the next five years based on profitability analysis, launching high-cost benefit cards has become difficult.

An industry insider said, "With merchant fee reductions leading card companies to cut costs, they have no choice but to discontinue unprofitable products going forward," adding, "Ultimately, this inevitably leads to a reduction in consumer benefits."

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