[Exclusive] 74% of Young Delinquents Are Long-Term Overdue... 2 Out of 10 Have Multiple Debts

425,696 Young People in Long-term Default
Average Overdue Period: 121.9 Days
"Many Young People Use Revolving Services for Amounts Over 5 Million KRW"

Seventy-four percent of young defaulters (aged 19-34) have failed to repay their debts for over 90 days. The total number of young defaulters is 572,347, with an average overdue amount of 9.1 million KRW. Among young people with loans, 17% have borrowed from three or more financial institutions. Young people using the 'revolving' service, which allows some payment amounts to be carried over to the next month, had an average revolving balance of 3.167 million KRW.

425,696 Young Long-term Defaulters... Average Overdue Days 121.9

According to the '2024 Youth Financial Status Survey' received on the 31st by Rep. Lee Jung-moon of the Democratic Party from the Korea Inclusive Finance Agency, 572,347 young people (aged 19-34) are currently overdue (over 30 days). This accounts for 6.2% of the surveyed youth population (9,274,074). The surveyed youth correspond to the age group eligible for the Youth Leap Account subscription (19-34 years old). The number of people aged 19 to 24 is 2,687,951; those aged 25 to 29 number 3,131,400; and those aged 30 to 34 number 3,454,723.

Including those who are not currently overdue but have experienced overdue payments, the total is 1,020,699, which is 11.1% of all youth. In other words, one out of every ten young people has experienced overdue payments. The average total overdue days is 121.9 days. Among them, males have an average overdue period of 134.2 days, which is longer than females at 103.3 days.

Among all young defaulters, 425,696 have been long-term overdue for more than 90 days. This represents 74% of all young defaulters. The average overdue amount among young people is 9.1 million KRW. There is a tendency for the overdue amount to increase with age. The average overdue amount is 5 million KRW for ages 19-24, 7 million KRW for ages 25-29, and 11 million KRW for ages 30-34.

Currently, 2,850,636 young people have loans, accounting for 30.7% of the youth population. The average age at which they first take out a loan is 23.7 years, and 91.9% of young people with loan experience first took out a loan before age 30. The number of young multiple debtors borrowing from three or more financial institutions is 474,665, which is 16.7% of young people with loans.

The average credit score of young people is 806.3 points (based on KCB). Those in the bottom 10% of credit scores number 736,227, accounting for 8% of all youth.

“Many Young People Use Revolving Services for Amounts Over 5 Million KRW”

Young people in Korea spend an average of 1.467 million KRW per month on card consumption. They hold an average of 1.7 credit cards, and the average monthly installment payment amount is 366,400 KRW.

Young people who carry over some payment amounts (revolving) tend to revolve large sums on average. Revolving is a service that allows a set portion of the credit card bill due this month to be deferred to the next month. Revolving is considered a major cause of credit score decline and requires higher fees than other loans. The card balance keeps revolving endlessly, and fees are charged on the revolving amount as well.

There are 297,348 young people using revolving services, with an average revolving amount of 3.167 million KRW. Notably, 64,135 young people who used revolving for amounts over 5 million KRW account for about 22%, the largest group among seven categories. The most common reason for using revolving was insufficient funds to repay. According to an in-depth financial survey conducted by the Korea Inclusive Finance Agency on 1,624 young people, 41% of the 78 young revolving users responded that they used revolving because they lacked the funds to fully repay their card payments. Nineteen point two percent said they used it to prevent credit score decline due to overdue payments.