Popular Alzza Cards Discontinued One After Another... "Only Consumer Benefits Decrease"

144 Types of Credit Cards Discontinued This Year
Issuance of High-Benefit Premium Cards Suspended One After Another

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] Credit card companies are discontinuing their 'premium cards,' which used to offer relatively superior benefits, one after another this year. This is interpreted as a measure to reduce costs by reorganizing around premium cards due to deteriorating profitability or by reducing discount benefits. As a result, the benefits returned to consumers have also been significantly reduced.

According to the card industry on the 27th, the 'KB Kookmin Tantandae-ro Miz & Mister Titanium' card will stop new issuance on the 30th. Renewal by extending the validity period and reissuance due to damage or loss are possible, but new, replacement, or additional issuance is not allowed.

This card gained popularity by offering a 10% discount on daily life services such as coffee, transportation, fuel, department stores, and marts, with a maximum monthly discount of up to 100,000 KRW. Because of the high discount limit, if the total spending reaches 400,000 KRW, a 70,000 KRW discount is applied, and if it reaches 800,000 KRW, a 100,000 KRW discount is applied. For this reason, it ranked first in a survey conducted by Korea's largest credit card specialist site, Card Gorilla, in September, as the premium card that consumers most wished would not be discontinued.

Premium cards have been discontinued one after another this year. A representative example is the 'Emart KB Kookmin Card,' which was popular as a 'gulbi card' sharing performance and annual fees with other cards. When the card discontinuation was announced, issuance applications surged, causing a temporary issuance delay notice. The 'Payco X Lotte Card,' which could accumulate up to 300,000 points per month, was also discontinued last month. As of October 22, the number of discontinued credit cards among the seven major card companies this year (Shinhan, Samsung, KB Kookmin, Hyundai, Lotte, Woori, Hana) is 144, approaching last year's discontinued credit card count of 160.

The number of discontinued cards has been increasing over the past three years. It rose from 73 in 2017 and 82 in 2018 to 160 last year, nearly doubling. Starting this year, a 'profitability analysis system guideline' was introduced, requiring card companies to release only products that can generate profits over the next five years based on profitability analysis. This has led to expectations that more cards will be discontinued than last year. Although 115 new credit cards have been launched this year, under the profitability guidelines, it has become difficult for card companies to release cards with high-cost benefits. This is why consumers complain that all premium cards have disappeared and new cards offer insignificant benefits.

An industry official said, "According to the profitability analysis system guideline, card companies are discontinuing unprofitable products or cannot include high-cost benefits in new cards, which ultimately results in reduced benefits for consumers."

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