Daegu Love Gift Certificates Join Samsung Pay... Daegu City to Issue Over 1 Trillion Won in Daegu Happiness Pay for the New Year

Maintain 1 Trillion Won Scale with Additional Disputes, IC Card and Mobile Payments Available

Daegu City will issue Daegu Love Gift Certificates and Daegu Happiness Pay worth 1 trillion won again next year.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yeojong-gu, Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Trainee Reporter Ise-ryeong Lee] Daegu City will resume issuing Daegu Sarang Gift Certificates Daegu Happiness Pay worth 1 trillion won from the first day of the new year.

The city held a bid in November this year to recruit an agency to manage Daegu Happiness Pay and finally selected Daegu Bank.

Daegu Bank has completed preparations for issuing Daegu Happiness Pay next year and will operate Daegu Happiness Pay for three years from January 2022 to December 2024.

Although the national government subsidy has decreased, the city will additionally invest city funds to support small business owners and self-employed people struggling due to prolonged social distancing, issuing the same scale of 1 trillion won next year as this year.

The monthly discount purchase limit is 500,000 won, the discount rate is 10%, and recharging is possible after using the balance.

Considering last year's sales status, to prevent early exhaustion and ensure stable issuance of gift certificates until the end of the year, the monthly issuance scale will be limited to 100 billion won.

Next year's Daegu Happiness Pay has changed from the magnetic stripe (MS) method, which required 'swiping' the card on the terminal by reading the stripe on the back of the card, to an IC chip embedded method that allows 'inserting' the card into the terminal slot.

Until now, there were inconveniences in some taxis and study cafes using kiosk payment systems where MS method payments were not supported due to different terminal usage methods.

In the new year, by inserting the card with the embedded IC chip for payment, Daegu Happiness Pay usage will become easier in taxis and unmanned kiosks, and personal information will be more securely protected without being affected by magnets.

The IC card, introduced along with a new design, is scheduled to be launched after March next year. Existing cards can still be used, but reissuance is possible if necessary.

Next year, Samsung Pay service will be applied to Daegu Happiness Pay, so carrying a physical card will no longer be necessary.

The city signed a business agreement with Samsung Electronics in November this year and plans to start Samsung Pay service in March after final consultations in January next year.

Users of mobile phones equipped with Samsung Pay can register the Daegu Happiness Pay card in the Samsung Pay app and make payments by bringing the phone close to the payment terminal.

Daegu Happiness Pay, first issued in 2020 with a scale of 300 billion won, completed discounted sales of 1.043 trillion won this year, and non-discounted sales such as COVID-19 mutual aid funds reached 107.6 billion won as of December, making the total issuance scale in 2021 1.1506 trillion won.

The city received the Minister of the Interior and Safety Award in the final evaluation of excellent cases of local love gift certificates by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, participated by 13 cities and provinces and 38 cities, counties, and districts, recognizing the achievements of Daegu Happiness Pay in revitalizing the local economy.

The special grant of 160 million won received along with the award will be used as a resource to promote the issuance of Daegu Happiness Pay next year.

Mayor Kwon Young-jin said, “We decided to maintain the issuance scale of Daegu Happiness Pay to support self-employed people and small business owners facing closure risks due to prolonged social distancing,” adding, “I hope Daegu Happiness Pay will be a solution to revitalize the local neighborhood markets.”

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