Overseas credit card spending by South Koreans dipped slightly from three months earlier in the third quarter despite a slight increase in the number of people going overseas, central bank data showed Wednesday.

In the three months ended Sept. 30, overseas credit card spending totaled $3.3 billion, down 0.5 percent from $3.32 billion in the second quarter, according to the data compiled by the Bank of Korea.

The Q3 tally marks a 3.1 percent on-year gain from $3.2 billion in the third quarter of 2014. Overseas credit card spending includes purchases made by debit and direct payment cards.

The on-quarter drop in overseas credit card spending comes after the amount hit a quarterly high in the second quarter. Such a rise had been largely attributed to an increase in duty-free allowance to $600 per person from the previous $400.

In the July-September period, the number of South Koreans going overseas spiked 12.9 percent on-quarter to 5.02 million while the average amount of overseas purchases made by each credit card used slipped 1.8 percent to $346, according to the BOK.

Credit card spending by foreign visitors in South Korea, on the other hand, plunged 38.7 percent on-year to just over $2 billion in the third quarter.

The large cut apparently reflects the recent drop in the number of foreign tourists visiting the country following the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in late May.

The central bank data showed the number of credit cards used by foreign visitors here also tumbled 33.6 percent on-year while the average amount of purchases made by each card slipped 7.7 percent to $248. (Yonhap)