In the First Half, Daily Card Usage Averaged 3.5 Trillion Won... Mobile Transactions Accounted for 53.8%

Payment Card Usage Up 3.7% Year-on-Year
Non-Face-to-Face and Mobile Transactions Continue Steady Growth
Physical Card Usage on the Decline

In the first half of this year, the average daily usage of credit and debit cards reached 3.5 trillion won. While the proportion of payments made via mobile devices continues to grow steadily, the use of physical cards is on the decline.

According to the "Trends in Domestic Payment and Settlement for the First Half of 2025" released by the Bank of Korea on September 18, the average daily transaction value using payment cards in the first half of this year was 3.511 trillion won, a 3.7% increase compared to the same period last year (3.386 trillion won).

The growth rates have remained relatively steady: 4.2% in the second half of 2023, 3.9% in the first half of 2024, and 4.3% in the second half of 2024.

By type, postpaid cards (credit cards) saw an average daily usage of 2.0806 trillion won in the first half of this year, up 4.1% from the same period a year ago. Debit cards (check cards and cash cards) recorded an average daily transaction value of 698 billion won, a 2.1% increase over the same period. In contrast, prepaid card usage dropped by 14.7% to an average of 7 billion won per day. This decline is attributed to some local gift certificate operators switching from card companies to electronic financial service providers.

The average daily transaction value processed by dedicated card companies was 3 trillion won. Analyzing the usage by payment method based on dedicated card companies, the average daily value of non-face-to-face transactions in the first half of this year was 1.3 trillion won, a 5.8% increase from the same period last year. The share of non-face-to-face payments in the total transaction value (41.8%) increased slightly compared to the second half of last year (41%). Non-face-to-face payments include not only online shopping using smartphones and PCs, but also on-site transactions conducted via mobile devices without terminal contact, such as automatic payments through taxi-hailing apps.

The average daily value of face-to-face payments was 1.7 trillion won, up 1.0% from the same period last year.

By access device, the average daily value of payments made using mobile devices and similar channels was 1.6 trillion won, a 6.3% increase from the same period a year ago. This figure includes not only mobile devices but also PCs, ARS, and biometric authentication, and covers both non-face-to-face payments and face-to-face payments where a mobile device is tapped on a card terminal. The share of payments made via mobile devices and similar channels reached 53.8% in the first half of this year, further widening the gap since surpassing physical cards in 2023.

In contrast, the average daily value of payments made with physical cards declined by 0.8% to 1.4 trillion won during the same period.

Within the total transaction value of payment cards processed via mobile devices and similar channels, the share of simple payment services was 51.4%, up slightly from 50.7% a year earlier. Among simple payment services, the share handled by fintech companies (ICT firms and mobile phone manufacturers) expanded to 72.3%, while the share handled by card companies shrank to 27.7%.

In the first half of this year, the average daily value of promissory notes and checks was 16.7 trillion won, a 4.7% increase from the first half of last year (15.9 trillion won). Banker's checks decreased by 18.6% year-on-year for both fixed and non-fixed denominations. While electronic promissory notes dropped by 15.1%, the use of demand checks grew by 16.5%, resulting in a 4.9% increase in total promissory note usage compared to the same period last year.

The average daily value of account transfers via the small-value payment network was 100.8 trillion won, a 0.9% increase from the first half of last year (99.8 trillion won). Account transfers via the electronic financial network, which account for 91.1% of the total, averaged 91.8 trillion won per day. The Bank of Korea explained that the upward trend is centered on firm banking (4.2%), a corporate financial transaction system used for payroll and payment settlements. While the average daily value of account transfers through the open banking network (2.1 trillion won) increased by 4.7% year-on-year, the CD network continued to decline, dropping by 14.8%.

Meanwhile, in the first half of this year, the average daily number of internet banking (including mobile banking, excluding mutual savings banks and microfinance institutions) transactions by domestic banks was 27.35 million, up 10.4% from the same period last year. However, the average daily transaction value dropped by 2.9% to 85.9 trillion won over the same period.

Of these, the average daily number of mobile banking transactions was 24.55 million, with a transaction value of 17.9 trillion won. These figures represent increases of 11.6% and 4.0%, respectively, compared to the same period last year. The shares of mobile banking in the total were 89.8% by number of transactions and 20.9% by transaction value. The number of non-face-to-face loan applications via the internet was 33,000, with a transaction value of 900 billion won, both down 20.1% and 13.6%, respectively, from a year earlier.