Koreans use nearly W8tr at convenience stores on credit cards

Credit card use at convenience stores reached a new peak last year, nearing 8 trillion won ($7.1 billion), according to the Bank of Korea, Sunday.

Between January and November in 2018, over 7.3 trillion won was used with credit cards at convenience stores, up 19.9 percent from the year before. Figures from December are not yet known, but authorities believe with average monthly spending of 670 billion won, last year‘s total spending would near 8 trillion won.

(Yonhap)

The surge is accredited to the growth of single-person households seeking smaller portions of food, as well as recent developments that allow payment via credit cards for small purchases.

According to the Korea Association of Convenience Store Industry, the number of convenience stores in Korea marked 40,192 as of March 2018.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)