An employee swipes a customer’s credit card through the reader at a restaurant in Seoul on Dec. 23, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean credit card companies saw the number of customer complaints rise sharply in the fourth quarter of last year, amid rising controversy over the moral hazard of the financial firms, ignited by their payment of hefty performance bonuses.
According to the Credit Finance Association of Korea, the nation’s seven major card issuers received 1,870 complaints in the fourth quarter of last year, up 72 percent from the previous quarter.
Of the total, complaints about institutional policies such as buyers’ right to defend in installment transactions accounted for the largest share (about 600 cases), followed by credit card sales-related complaints with about 200 cases, and receivable-related complaints and customer consultation-related complaints with about 100 cases each.
Classifying the growth in the number of customer complaints by company, Samsung Card Co. ranked first with an increase of 127 percent.
However, in light of the number of customer complaints per 100,000 cardholders, Hyundai Card Co. was positioned at No. 1 with 2.58 cases.
Samsung Card saw the number of customer complaints per 100,000 cardholders rise by 125.3 percent in the fourth quarter of last year compared to a quarter ago.
Card companies were criticized for neglecting the difficulties of their customers since they cut most of their services and raised their average credit loan interest rates up to the level of private loan businesses last year, citing higher fund-raising costs resulting from the increase in interest rates.
Samsung Card achieved record-high results last year, paying performance bonuses of up to 50 percent of annual pay. Other credit card companies are expected to keep their performance bonuses at last year’s level.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
