SEOUL, KOREA - As more people go overseas, the credit card spending has also increased to a record-high level. According to a report "3Q 2013 Overseas Credit Card Spending Statistics by Korean Nationals" published by the Bank of Korea on November 29, the the volume of credit card spending during the third quarter was US$2.71 billion, up 14.2 percent from the same period last year.

 

Chung Seon-young, BOK manager responsible for capital movement monitoring, said, "The number of people traveling overseas in the third quarter was 4.02 million, about 15 percent higher than the previous quarter, which naturally led to a higher overseas spending."

 

The total number of overseas credit card users was 6,236,000, up 7.8 percent from the second quarter. But per-capita credit card purchase fell 0.5 percent to $434. By card type, credit cards took the lion's share of 69.0 percent, followed by check cards (20.7%) and debit cards (10.3%).