Kim Mo (34), who lives in Mapo District, Seoul, recently rushed to obtain the Asiana Shinhan Card Air 1.5 that he had been keeping an eye on. This card, which gained popularity due to its high mileage accumulation rate, will no longer be issued after the merger of Asiana Airlines and Korean Air on the 30th. By paying an annual fee of 45,000 won, users earn 1.5 miles for every 1,000 won spent, and an additional 1.5 miles at overseas merchants, totaling 3 miles earned.
Cards known as "money-saving cards" with high benefits are being discontinued one after another among consumers. In February of last year, the news of the discontinuation of Hyundai Card's representative money-saving card, the "HyunApple (Hyundai Card Amex The Platinum Card)," caused a surge in demand, leading to a issuance frenzy. Following that, Hyundai Card launched the HyunApple 2 as a successor, but its benefits have significantly decreased compared to the previous version, making it less popular than before.
The cards that remain popular among consumers until recently are all cards issued in the past. According to the credit card popularity ranking on the card comparison site Card Gorilla, the top-ranking Shinhan Card Mr. Life was launched in September 2015, while the Samsung Card TapTap was released in April 2016. The Samsung Card & Mileage Platinum, ranked 3rd, was launched in 2016, followed by the Hyundai Card M, which is an old card released in May 2003, over 20 years ago.
Looking at the launch dates of cards within the top 10, many are older cards launched more than 5 years ago, such as Hyundai Card Zero (2020) and Lotte Card LockRite (2021). As card companies quickly reduce money-saving cards, the total number of discontinued cards over the past three years has reached 1,154, with 101 in 2022, 458 in 2023, and 595 in 2024, indicating that the number of discontinued cards is increasing each year.
In fact, the card industry has been continuously reducing money-saving cards and increasing premium cards for several years, because of bleak profit forecasts for card companies. According to the Financial Supervisory Service's financial statistical system, the net profit of the eight major credit card companies (Shinhan, Samsung, Hyundai, KB Kookmin, Lotte, Woori, Hana, and BC) reached 2.591 trillion won last year, an increase of only 0.3% compared to the previous year.
The main reason is that net profit is struggling due to the deteriorating profitability of the core credit sales business. In 2012, the government introduced the "qualified cost (commission cost) system," which determines the commission rate every three years. However, the commission rate has only decreased without a single increase. Currently, the merchant commission structure is such that the more consumers use credit cards, the greater the losses.
Both the card industry and the government are aware of this fact, but the commission rates have not increased for several years. The government and political circles are reluctant to raise rates with small business owners and self-employed individuals in mind. Moreover, this year shows signs of a prolonged domestic consumption recession, making it difficult for the card industry to even dream of raising commission rates. As a result, card companies have changed their strategy to secure high-quality customers with large consumption volumes and lower risks of arrears through premium cards.
The trend of discontinuing money-saving cards is expected to continue in the card industry. An industry official noted, "Due to the worsening business environment, card companies have no choice but to focus on annual fee revenue and will continue to discontinue money-saving cards, concentrating benefits on premium cards while relatively lower-yield money-saving cards are phased out."