On the first day of Korea’s new ‘account transfer system’, users showed much interest. The Payinfo site where the service is provided even went down after being flooded with traffic. (Image : Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 30 (Korea Bizwire) – On the first day of Korea’s new ‘account transfer system’, users showed much interest. The Payinfo site where the service is provided even went down after being flooded with traffic.
According to the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute, the number of connections as of 3 p.m. reached 159,205, with 45,075 accounts being closed and 18,208 accounts modified.
The account transfer system is a mechanism which automatically links automatic transfers that are set on a previous account to a new account. The changes can only be made through Payinfo (www.payinfo.or.kr).
Sixteen banks, including KB Kookmin Bank and Shinhan Bank, are participating in the account transfer system. Changing accounts at a bank or on the internet site, and services that allow checking, canceling, and changing automatic transfers will start in February 2016.
Automatic transferring to educational institutions, media companies and other organizations that ask for payment will be possible starting from June 2016.
Interest in the new service was high even from early in the morning. At 8:30 a.m., 30 minutes before the start of the service, ‘account transfer system’ and ‘Payinfo’ were at the top of search rankings on portal sites.
Users expressed anticipation but also had concerns.
Naver user ‘chlt****’ commented, “I should switch banks. I was so stressed out because of my accounts”, and ‘city****’ showed anticipation by saying “Convenient systems like this should be made continuously”.
However, concerns also existed. User ‘ksim****’ worried, “What if something gets messed up on your loan and you have to pay more interest?”, and ‘psjp****’ commented that, “This system will also be very convenient for hackers”.
By M.H.Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
