케이뱅크 마이너스 통장According to industry sources on the 6th, Kakao Bank recently lowered its overdraft account interest rate by 0.7%. As the lowest interest rate dropped to 4.586% per annum, customers flocked to the account and the amount of new loans reportedly increased by about 50% compared to the previous week. It is said that the number of customers increased rapidly despite the fact that the product was limited to high-credit customers with a credit score of 850 or higher.
K Bank’s overdraft account is also receiving favorable reviews. The interest rate for K Bank’s overdraft account is 5.08%, but it is said to be popular because it is lower than the lowest interest rate (5.45% per annum) for overdraft accounts offered by the five major commercial banks: KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, and NH Nonghyup.
The overdraft account, known as the emergency fund account for office workers, was treated as a burden until the end of last year. The sharp rise in interest rates was the main factor, and especially at the end of last year, when the Legoland crisis in Gangwon Province occurred, the highest interest rate on overdraft accounts for high-credit borrowers soared to 8% per annum. Overdraft account balances quickly decreased, and borrowers were shocked by the increased interest and hurriedly repaid their loans. As of January, the overdraft account balances of the five major commercial banks amounted to 41.8 trillion won, down 3.61% (1.5342 trillion won) from the previous month. It decreased by over 4.4 trillion won compared to the end of July last year, half a year ago. In addition, until the end of last year, commercial banks lowered interest rates on housing mortgage loans and jeonse deposit loans to ease the interest burden on borrowers, but overdraft accounts were an exception. This was because the banking industry was strengthening risk management for unsecured credit loans due to the rising interest rates and the economic recession becoming a reality. However, it is evaluated that the recent reduction in lending rates by commercial banks was mainly due to the president and financial authorities’ call for strengthening their public roles. Previously, President Yoon Seok-yeol recently defined banks as a “public good” and strongly criticized excessive performance-based pay as a “money feast” before urging countermeasures.
Since overdraft accounts have no collateral, their interest rates are relatively higher than those of housing mortgage loans, and the interest rate gap by grade tends to be large, so borrowers’ interest burden is high in the high-interest rate environment. As the interest rates for overdraft accounts have recently been lowered to the minimum 4-5% per annum, centered around internet banks, they are gradually gaining popularity again. An industry insider explained, “Demand is rising due to the interest rates falling again,” and “Customers have no choice but to flock to banks that offer even slightly more favorable interest rates.”
Currently, the overdraft account interest rates of the three major internet banks (K Bank, Kakao Bank, and Toss Bank) range from 4.573% to 14.52%. This is a figure that shows that the lower end of the interest rate has dropped by 0.94% points and the upper end by 0.48% points compared to the end of last year.
In the case of general commercial banks, the decline is a bit steeper. The interest rate band of the four major domestic commercial banks (KB Kookmin, Hana, Woori, and Shinhan) is around 5.45-7.25%. The lower end of the interest rate has dropped by 1.07% points and the upper end by 0.7% points compared to the end of last year.
Looking at only the average interest rate, the interest rate for overdraft accounts at Internet banks seems much higher, but if you look closely, Internet banks offer more favorable interest rates to high-credit borrowers. The lower end of the overdraft account interest rate at Internet banks is lower than that of commercial banks. The lower end of the overdraft account interest rate offered to high-credit borrowers is an average of 6.33% for the five major commercial banks, but the average for Internet banks was only 6.17%. As of January, Hana Bank had the lowest average interest rate among commercial banks at 6.13%, while Kookmin Bank had the highest at 6.73%. An industry insider said, “The average interest rate is still high at 5-7% per year, but there are quite a few customers who are benefiting from the lower interest rates as the lower interest rate range has fallen significantly.”
