Credit Card Fee Cut Reviewed

Credit card issuers are reviewing whether to cut the fees they charge merchants, an association of credit card issuers said Wednesday.

The Korea Non-bank Financing Association met with heads of card issuing firms this week and told them that the National Tax Service had requested they lower their commissions, which average 2.86 percent.

"We did slash commissions for credit card members recently," said a representative of one of the card issuers. "But considering the intensifying competition among credit card issuers, the fees from merchants will eventually go down."

The heads of the card issuing firms did agreed to increase the total prize money given to winners of their credit card lotteries. In Korea, cardholders are entered into lotteries whenever they use credit cards to pay for something costing at least 10,000 won ($8).