SEOUL, KOREA - Korea's credit card transaction amount is the third largest in the world, with the number of transactions the world's highest. According to a report on international comparison of credit card usage patterns for the past ten years by the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute, Korea's per-person credit card use as of 2012 was 147 transactions in the year. This is far ahead of the runners-up including Canada (89.8 transactions) and the United States (83.5).

 

As for the annual growth rate of debit card transaction volume, Korea's growth rate of 141 percent for the ten-year period between 2003 and 2012 is more than 10 times that of the 18-country average of 13.4 percent. The report commented on this explosive growth, "The volume of debit card transactions will keep rising as long as the government encourages the use of debit cards as a way to improve the transparency in tax reporting by merchants."

 

But the per-transaction credit card payment amount for Koreans is much smaller at US$58.70 than their developed country counterparts in Switzerland ($152.20), Australia ($146.80), the Netherlands ($128.90), and Belgium ($120.70).

 

As for debit card per-transaction volume for Koreans was $29.60, only about a third of the 18-country average of $92.70. By country, Japan was by far highest at $542.20, followed by Switzerland ($141.20), Singapore ($98.00), and Italy ($86.70).