The story
History
In October 2001, Hyundai Motor Group acquired Diners Club Korea and changed its name to Hyundai Card Co., Ltd.
In 2003, they launched the Hyundai Card M which offered discounts of up to ₩500,000 (2006) (equivalent to ₩766,319.74 or US$571.76 in 2025) to members when purchasing a Hyundai or Kia vehicle. By 2009, the Hyundai Card M had more than 6 million members.
Hyundai Card released Korea's first premium credit card, "the Black", in 2005.
In July 2013, the company announced “Hyundai Card Chapter Two,” which allowed consumers to use their point mileage and cashback more freely if they met with a certain usage threshold.
In October 2015, the company launched the "Digital Hyundai Card" project which expanded online services for card members.
2015 saw the launch of Hyundai Card's first private label credit card (PLCC). They have since introduced partnerships with more than 11 brands including convenience store chain Emart, Hyundai Motor, eBay Korea, Costco, Korean Air, Starbucks, Naver and fashion commerce platform Musinsa. Their PLCC with eBay Korea acquired 420,000 customers within a year, gaining 700,000 users by January 2020.
As of the end of 2020, Hyundai Card had 8.9 million credit cardholders, and posted KRW 12.2 trillion in credit purchase volume. The company is spurring global expansion with its first overseas branch in Tokyo in August, 2020. As of April 2021, Hyundai Card has 9.15 million credit cardholders.
In March 2023, the company introduced Apple Pay for the first time in South Korea. The following month, Hyundai Card gained 335,000 new members, up 156% from the same period the previous year.
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Investments
In 2005, General Electric Consumer Finance (also known as GE Capital) invested ₩678.3 billion (2005) (equivalent to ₩1.06 trillion or US$793.05 million in 2025) into the credit card company.
However, in 2017, they sold their 43% stake, equating to 69 million shares. Hyundai Commercial bought 30.5 million shares for ₩298 billion (US$222.34 million) making them the 2nd largest shareholder after Hyundai Motor (37%). The remainder was bought by Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, and two private equity firms: Hong-Kong based Affinity Equity Partners & Amsterdam-based AlpInvest.
Then, in 2021, AlpInvest, Affinity Equity Partners and GIC all sold their stakes to Taiwan-based Fubon Financial, reportedly due to the sluggish progress of its initial public offering (IPO). In 2022, Fubon Financial increased their ownership of Hyundai Card to 19.98%.
Controversies
In August 2017, Hyundai Card held an Ariana Grande concert and was criticized for their handling of the US artist's performance. She arrived in Korea just 3 hours before the start of the concert, meaning there was no meet-and-greet or pre-show rehearsal which fans had paid up to ₩650,000 (US$484.97) to see. Grande was also the target of online ire due to her apparent indifferent attitude towards her Korean fans. The concert came just months after the Manchester Arena bombing, in which 22 fans died in a terrorist attack at one of her UK performances.
The Hyundai Card CEO released a statement criticising Grande, stating her actions left "much to be desired" and that "[Grande] arriving right before the concert and leaving immediately, avoiding the press has left the impression as if the concert itself was mechanical".
In 2023, the card company organized a Bruno Mars concert in Seoul and received backlash from concertgoers for supposedly giving preferential treatment to celebrities. It was speculated that celebrities, such as members of BTS and BLACKPINK, were given free front-row seats. An apology was issued by Hyundai Card Vice Chairman, promising to "pay closer attention to these matters".
Digital Transformation Hyundai Card
“Digital Hyundai Card” is a service provided through smartphone application offering customers with a more convenient and secure way to use a credit card.
Digital Hyundai Card Project
The 'Lock' service allows users to shut down their card function whenever they want, with a swipe on the credit card app. 'Limit', on the other hand, can be used to set credit limits for certain time periods. The 'Virtual Card Numbers' prevent card identity theft online by providing users with a set of numbers that can replace the customers’ actual credit card information online. The 'PayShot' makes online shopping easier by simplifying the payment process. Shoppers only need to log into one of seven different online shopping malls when using their Hyundai cards. 'Chameleon' allows the user to have multiple Hyundai cards on one card and select the card with benefits of his choice in Hyundai card application. 'Buddy' is an AI chatbot service that offers real-time counselling on inquiries about Hyundai card. 'OverseaTransfer' lets Hyundai card members wire money to the Hyundai card payment account without registering a bank account number by paying only KRW 3,000 of remittance fee per transaction.
Hyundai Card App 3.0
Hyundai Card app 3.0, launched after its renewal, has been designed to maximize user convenience by offering information optimized for respective users. The app is equipped with a "Dual Home" structure, which divides the user's favorite menus into two categories. "Account Home" has adopted a highly legible interface, allowing users to browse their card spending data at a glance, whereas "Content Home" comes up with varied content deemed to be interesting for users after artificial intelligence analyzes their tastes and patterns.
Hyundai Card Spending Care by Personetics
Hyundai Card deployed an AI-based digital service jointly developed with Personetics, an Israeli fintech company. The developed feature added to the Hyundai Card smartphone app analyzes each customer's credit card transactions and offers near-real time personalized and proactive spending insights.
From Wikipedia’s article on Hyundai Card, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4