"Didn’t Know I Was Paying" Surge in Complaints About Paid Card Company Add-on Services

"Check Details and Fees of Paid Add-on Products"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] Cases of subscribers filing complaints after unknowingly being charged for additional card company products such as credit inquiry notification services have recently surged.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service's "Card Company Paid Product Complaint Status" on the 29th, from 2017 to September 2022, a total of 30,216 complaints were received by the Financial Supervisory Service and each card company regarding paid additional products sold by eight major card companies.

Card companies sell paid additional products of partner companies' service products to members through telemarketing(TM) and other methods. Representative examples include credit information management services, debt cancellation and deferment services (DCDS) which are insurance products that waive card debt in cases of death or illness, and coupon services.

The annual number of related complaints increased by 78.4% over four years, from 4,048 cases in 2017 to 7,223 cases in 2021. Half (49.3%) of the complaints were related to the cancellation of unnecessary additional products and refunds for unused services. Complaints about insufficient explanation and incomplete sales, such as telemarketing counselors explaining only the benefits of additional products without clearly informing about the fees, accounted for 25.8%.

As of the end of September last year, there were a total of 119 paid additional products operated by card companies, with the most in the categories of credit information (30), debt cancellation and deferment (29), shopping management (22), culture and subscription (19), and vehicle management (12). The total number of subscribers to paid additional products from the eight card companies was 11.19 million, with credit information management (8.75 million) having the largest number of subscribers by product.

The Financial Supervisory Service emphasized, "There are cases where users do not realize that monthly usage fees for paid additional products are automatically charged to their cards after subscribing through telemarketing," and advised, "You should check the details and fees of paid additional products you are using on the card company’s website or card statement." They also urged, "Please note that debt cancellation and deferment products charge fees not only on credit card usage amounts but also on all debts including card loan balances."