Sleeping points worth 2.4 trillion won... Redeem your card points for cash now

KFTC Application (App) Account Point
Photo by KFTC

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-seop] The Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute (KFTC) announced on the 11th that points worth 169.7 billion KRW were converted into cash during the first month since the card point cash conversion service was implemented.

This result comes from analyzing 14.65 million cash conversion applications received over one month starting from the 5th of last month through the KFTC’s AccountPoint application and the integrated point inquiry and account transfer app provided by the Credit Finance Association. The current average remaining point balance stands at approximately 2.4 trillion KRW.

The KFTC also reported that during the same period, 567,000 applications for cash conversion of long-unused and dormant account deposits were made through AccountPoint. The amount cashed out totaled 8.09 billion KRW, averaging about 26.1 million KRW per day. This figure is 2.4 times higher than the daily average cash conversion amount of 11 million KRW recorded in December last year before the service was launched.

According to the KFTC, credit and debit card usage amounted to 875 trillion KRW in 2019, with approximately 3.5 trillion KRW accumulated as points. The average point accumulation rate is around 0.4%, and the average point balance per credit or debit card is about 11,000 KRW.

The point cash conversion service will also be available during the Lunar New Year holiday from the 11th to the 14th. However, for some card companies that find it difficult to use domestic bank systems in real time due to partnership issues, deposits will be made sequentially starting from the next business day (the 15th) after the holiday ends. Additionally, since point accumulation rates vary significantly by product and points may be automatically used for credit card payments, the remaining balance may not be large, so users should check with their individual card companies.

Users should also be cautious of various fraud crimes such as voice phishing. The KFTC emphasized, “The government and financial institutions do not request fees, card passwords, or CVC information under the pretext of card point deposits.”

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