This article is by Jeong Jae-hong and read by an artificial voice.



The amount of overdue credit card loans in Korea has surged to a record high, nearing 1.5 trillion won ($1.06 billion), according to recent government data.

As of the end of August, credit card loans - including cash advances and card loans - overdue by more than one month totaled 1.483 trillion won, according to data submitted by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) to Rep. Kang Min-kuk of the People Power Party on Monday.

The volume of overdue card debt has steadily increased each year since 2022 and is expected to hit another all-time high this year. At the end of 2021, the figure stood at 718 billion won.

The figure rose to 860 billion won at the end of 2022 and 983 billion won at the end of 2023. By the end of last year, it had exceeded 1 trillion won for the first time, reaching 1.094 trillion won. As of this August, the total had more than doubled over four years.

Compared to August 2024 - when overdue credit card loans stood at 1.372 trillion won - the figure has grown by about 8 percent. Over the same period, the total volume of credit card loans rose just 0.3 percent from 44.665 trillion won to 44.785 trillion won.

The rapid increase in overdue loans has pushed up delinquency rates as well. The delinquency rate for card loans was 1.9 percent at the end of 2021, rising to 2.2 percent in 2022 and 2.4 percent in both 2023 and early 2024. As of the end of August this year, it jumped to 3.3 percent.

"Borrowers facing tighter access to bank loans are increasingly turning to card loans," said Rep. Kang. "This trend could threaten the financial health of card companies, and regulators must act quickly to manage and off-load bad debt appropriately."

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.