Popularity of Utility Bills, Food, and Fuel Benefits Rises Amid Economic Downturn
Last year, the most popular keywords among credit card consumers were utility bills and rentals, food, and fuel. Benefits that have alternatives or have become less attractive, such as no-spending-requirement, transportation, and airline mileage, saw a decline in interest.
CardGorilla, a specialized credit card comparison platform, released the “2025 Credit Card Search Report” on January 16, containing these findings.
The report was based on the number of searches for each benefit category through the “custom card search” feature on the CardGorilla website, covering the period from January 1 to December 31 of last year.
The benefit category with the highest year-on-year increase in searches was utility bills and rentals, which grew by 14%. Food and fuel also saw increases of 10% and 9%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
In a recent CardGorilla survey titled “Which expenses do you most want to save on in 2026?”, utility bills and apartment management fees (13.9%), fuel and vehicle-related costs (13.0%), telecommunications expenses (12.4%), and dining out and delivery costs (11.8%) ranked first to fourth. This indicates a clear demand to reduce spending in essential consumption areas.
The benefit that saw the largest decrease in searches among card consumers last year was the no-spending-requirement category, which dropped by about 16% year-on-year. Transportation and airline mileage benefit categories also declined by 11% and 3%, respectively.
No-spending-requirement cards were previously valued for offering benefits at all merchants without any spending requirements, but their appeal has diminished due to the discontinuation of popular cards and the introduction of new spending conditions.
For transportation, the launch of K-Pass, Climate Companion Card, and this year’s Everyone’s Card has made it unnecessary to rely on credit or debit card benefits in this area.
As for airline mileage, there used to be intense competition among mileage cards for Korean Air, Asiana Airlines, low-cost carriers (LCCs), and foreign airlines. However, the merger between Korean Air and Asiana Airlines resulted in the mass discontinuation of Asiana Airlines mileage cards, reducing their attractiveness to consumers.
Go Seunghoon, CEO of CardGorilla, stated, “Last year, due to continued inflation, cards focused on living expenses were more popular than ever. In areas where alternatives are clear, such as transportation benefits, or for cards offering perks outside of living expenses, such as leisure, demand may decline compared to before.”
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