South Korea's credit card issuers will cover the increase in fees for local customers' overseas purchases using Visa's networks, industry officials said Friday.

Visa Inc., a global payment chain based in California, plans to jack up the fee for Koreans' settlements abroad from the current 1 percent to 1.1 percent starting next month, despite strong opposition from card companies and customers here.

But local card firms have not formally informed their customers yet of any plan to apply the hike. They are required to give a notice to customers on any plan to raise fees or other changes related to card use at least a month before implementing such a measure.

The lack of a notification means the card firms won't pass on the burden to card users for the time being.

"It's a show of protest message against Visa," a card industry official said. "Besides, there has been pressure from the financial authorities not to raise customers' burden."

China UnionPay, headquartered in Shanghai, increased its international transaction fee from 0.6 percent to 0.8 percent starting in December.

South Korean card firms are paying for the increased burden themselves as well. (Yonhap)