Over 40 percent of payments made via credit card
Cash is the third-most preferred method of transaction among Korean adults behind credit and debit cards, a survey by the country’s central bank showed Thursday.
The Bank of Korea conducted a survey on 3,500 adults across the country for its report on transaction methods in physical stores, which showed cash transactions accounted for 15.9 percent of all transactions last year. Payments via credit card and debit card were higher, at 46.2 percent and 16.4 percent, respectively.
"Mobile card" transactions, referring to phone-based payments made via applications and SIM cards, was a close fourth at 12.9 percent. Others included payments via direct account transfer (3.7 percent) and prepaid methods (2.7 percent).
When asked to assess the satisfaction rate for each payment method, respondents gave an average score of 75.5 for credit card, 72.9 for debit card and 64.4 for cash. Credit card payments scored low in terms of cost (53.8) but high on convenience (78.5).
Overseas purchases were predominantly made via credit card, with 89.2 percent of the respondents saying they make such transactions.
Cash use still prevalent among older generation
Cash use in Korea has been on the downward trend since 2013, when it accounted for 41.3 percent of all payments. This dropped below the 40 percent mark in 2015 to 36 percent, and below the 30 percent mark in 2019 to 26.4 percent.
In the recent survey, Koreans on average had 66,000 won ($47.3) on their person, led by those in their 50s (91,000 won) and those aged 60 and above (77,000 won). Those in their 20s carried the least amount of cash (27,000 won), with just 3.6 percent of their purchases made in cash.
Cash usage for those in their 30s, 40s and 50s was just 2.9 percent, 2.7 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively, but cash use among those aged 60 and above sat at 30.2 percent.
Koreans rarely used cash for payments at gas stations (0.7 percent), private education institutes (0.8 percent), cultural venues (1 percent) and department stores (4.1 percent), but 56.3 percent of transactions made at traditional markets were made via cash.
The BOK report also compared cash usage in Korea with that of other nations: cash transactions in Japan (41 percent), Spain (38 percent), Germany (36 percent) and Italy (25 percent) were relatively high, while those in Norway (4 percent), Sweden (5 percent), Finland (7 percent), New Zealand (6 percent) and Australia (7 percent) were relatively low.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
