Card Spending Averages 3.8 Trillion Won Per Day in First Half... 1.8 Trillion Won via Mobile and Other Non-Physical Methods

Bank of Korea Releases 2026 H1 Domestic Payment and Settlement Trends

Daily Credit Card Usage Hits 3.1 Trillion Won, Up 7.3%

Debit and Cash Card Usage Reaches 0.8 Trillion Won, Up 7.5%

In the first half of this year, the average daily usage of credit and debit cards reached 3.8 trillion won.

Trial card. Getty Images

According to the “Domestic Payment and Settlement Trends for the First Half of 2026” released by the Bank of Korea on September 29, the average daily usage of payment cards in the first half of this year was 3.777 trillion won, a 7.6% increase compared to the same period last year. The growth rate has also been on the rise, expanding from 3.7% in the first half of last year, to 5.6% in the second half, and to 7.6% in the first half of this year.

Postpaid cards (credit cards), which account for 79.7% of total payment card usage, recorded an average daily usage of 3.01 trillion won, up 7.3% from a year earlier. Debit cards (including check cards and cash cards) registered an average daily usage of 751 billion won, marking a 7.5% increase year-on-year. Prepaid card usage surged 143.6% compared to the same period last year, amounting to an average of 16 billion won per day.

The average daily amount processed by specialized card companies was provisionally tallied at 3.2 trillion won. Analyzing usage by settlement method based on specialized card companies, the average daily usage through physical cards during the first half of this year was 1.4 trillion won, up 2.5% year-on-year. Non-present physical card payments, such as those using mobile devices, totaled 1.8 trillion won per day, a 10.6% increase compared to the previous year.

The increase in non-present physical card transactions has been driven mainly by simple card payment services (accounting for 52.6%), which allow card information to be pre-stored in mobile devices and use convenient authentication methods such as fingerprint recognition during transactions. The share of card simple payment services provided by fintech companies remained high at 72.0%.

By channel, face-to-face and non-face-to-face payment card usage amounted to 1.8 trillion won and 1.4 trillion won per day, respectively, representing increases of 5.6% and 8.6% year-on-year.

In the first half of the year, average daily usage of promissory notes and checks stood at 19.3 trillion won, a 14.9% rise compared to 16.8 trillion won in the same period last year. Usage of cashier's checks, promissory notes, and electronic promissory notes totaled 9 trillion won, 3.1 trillion won, and 2.7 trillion won respectively, reflecting year-on-year increases of 17.5%, 16.1%, and 27.4%. In contrast, usage of personal checks and other notes and checks decreased to 700 billion won and 100 billion won respectively, down 10.1% and 11.8% from a year earlier.

The scale of account transfers via the small-value payment network reached an average of 127.9 trillion won per day, a 26.8% increase compared to 100.9 trillion won during the same period last year. Electronic financial shared network account transfers, which account for 92.5% of small-value payment network transfers, amounted to 118.4 trillion won, up 28.8%. This growth was attributed to increases in internet banking and firm banking transactions, which rose by 22.9% and 30.4%, respectively. Transfers through the interbank payment network (4.9 trillion won) and open banking shared network (2.3 trillion won) also increased by 6.8% and 11.3%, respectively, year-on-year.

Meanwhile, in the first half of this year, domestic banks' average daily number of internet banking transactions (including mobile banking; excluding mutual savings banks and microfinance institutions) stood at 29.23 million, a 6.8% increase from the same period a year ago. The usage amount (106.4 trillion won) jumped significantly by 23.9%. The average daily number and amount of mobile banking transactions (26.5 million transactions and 20.1 trillion won, respectively) increased by 8.0% and 12.1% from a year earlier. In terms of total internet banking usage, mobile banking accounted for 90.7% of the total number of transactions and 18.9% of total transaction amount. In contrast, the number (30,000 cases) and amount (600 billion won) of non-face-to-face loan application services via the internet both declined by 10.5% and 26.0%, respectively, compared to the previous year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.