What is the most popular payment method in South Korea?
Credit cards. They made up 46.2% of transactions in the 2024 Bank of Korea payment survey, and Koreans spent 2.859 trillion won a day on credit cards in 2025. More and more of these cards are used through apps such as Samsung Wallet, Naver Pay and Kakao Pay rather than as plastic.
In detail
Credit cards. They made up 46.2% of transactions in the 2024 Bank of Korea payment survey, ahead of check cards at 16.4% and mobile cards at 12.9%. In 2025, Koreans spent 2.859 trillion won a day on credit cards, out of 3.6 trillion won on all payment cards.
A local card market
Eight domestic issuers share the market, and the top three, Shinhan, Samsung Card and Hyundai Card, are almost level. Domestic cards are processed on local networks, and international branding matters mostly for cross-border use. Shoppers can split purchases into installments, called halbu, at checkout.
Cards went mobile
Payments made without a physical card overtook plastic in 2025, at 1.7 trillion won a day against 1.4 trillion. Most of that runs through simple payment apps such as Samsung Wallet, Naver Pay, Kakao Pay and Toss, which store the card. Simple payments reached 1.23 trillion won a day in the first half of 2026.
What it means for payment operators
For operators serving merchants that sell to Korea, card acceptance goes through local payment gateways that support domestic cards, halbu and the main wallets. Connecting such a gateway, next to international cards, lets merchants reach Korean shoppers with the payment habits they expect.