Best Card Loan Options: 'Woori' for High Credit, 'DGB Daegu Bank' for Low Credit

Card Loan Standard Grade Disclosure for 3 Months
Interest Rates for High Credit Borrowers in Grades 1-2 Continue to Decline

Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] In August, Woori Card was found to offer the lowest interest rates to high-credit borrowers when taking out card loans. On the other hand, for low-credit borrowers, DGB Daegu Bank offered the lowest rates.

According to the credit finance association's disclosure on the 1st, as of the end of August, the average interest rate applied to grades 1-2 was the lowest at 7.46% by Woori Card. This is 0.41 percentage points lower than IBK Industrial Bank Card's 7.87%, which offered the lowest rate for the same grade in July. IBK Industrial Bank Card (8.02%) and Citibank Card (8.96%) followed Woori Card in providing relatively affordable card loan rates to high-credit borrowers.

For low-credit borrowers in grades 9-10, DGB Daegu Bank Card was the most advantageous at 18.90%, continuing from July. The card companies offering card loans to grades 9-10 included five companies: DGB Daegu Bank, Samsung, KB Kookmin, Hyundai, and Hana Card. Hana Card followed DGB Daegu Bank with a favorable interest rate of 19.14% for low-credit borrowers.

As of the end of August, the average card loan interest rates (operating prices) based on standard grades for seven full-service card companies (Shinhan, Samsung, KB Kookmin, Hyundai, Lotte, Woori, and Hana Card) recorded between 12.76% and 14.42%, slightly rising compared to the previous month. Operating prices are the final interest rates actually applied to members after preferential rates and special promotional discounts are applied to the base rates. Among the seven card companies, four saw interest rates rise while three saw declines, with the average of the seven increasing by 0.04 percentage points to 13.68% from 13.64% the previous month.

Samsung Card's card loan interest rate rose by 0.2 percentage points from the previous month to 14.22%. Following was Lotte Card at 14.12%, up 0.25 percentage points from the previous month. Shinhan Card increased by 0.38 percentage points to 14.08%, and Hana Card rose by 0.33 percentage points to 13.58%. KB Kookmin (13.57%), Hyundai (13.25%), and Woori Card (12.76%) saw slight decreases.