Card-use rewards often worthless

Kim Hee-Sook, 32, who is a homemaker, was upset after learning how to calculate the credit card points.

She applied for the card based on advertising that said card holders could get 1 point for every purchase of 1,000 won at Kookmin Pass Card and 2 points per 1,000 won of purchase at BC Top Card. So members could get a gift certificate of 20,000 won and 40,000 won each for purchase of 20 million won. For this reason, she has to wait at least four to five years to get the bonus gift certificate, as her monthly billing averages about 300,000 won.

Bonus air tickets and gas station cards are more or less the same. Each credit card company affiliated with airlines are offering 1 point of mileage for purchase of every 1,000 won. To win a round-trip air ticket to Cheju Island, consumers have to purchase over 10 million won worth of goods, and it must be 15 million won to win a ticket for peak season. For LG Oil Card, users are required to spend 10 million won, which might require several years, to win a 50,000 won gift certificate.

Rah Sung-Soo, 30, who works for an Internet service provider, barely got a gift certificate for an electric heater by using Enclean Card and LG Oil Card. But he abandoned the gift because they asked him to collect the gift at a designated gas station after two to three months.

Also, bonus air tickets given by mileage programs do not offer compensation for delay or missing of flight services.

Hyundai Department Store limited the effective date through Dec. 31, while Lotte Department Store set the date by the end of February 2001. Hyundai and Lotte require purchases of over 4 million won and 5 million won for the bonus benefit.

Yoon Eun-Hee, 29, became a member of Big Family LG Lady Card. She pointed out that the 50,000 won meal ticket she received when she applied for the card membership has many limitations. It must be used within two months, on a weekday, at a designated restaurant, lunch set menu is excluded, it can be used for order of additional menu and can be applied when it is paid with the card that offered the meal ticket. She said that the ticket has nearly 10 restrictions, adding that the meal ticket is almost useless.

An official who heads the consumer protection bureau of the Fair Trade Commission said that the government will study ways of protecting consumers from mounting damages as a result of advertising of exaggerated point systems. He said that companies that do not specify important information such as the chance of winning the prize in their advertising would be subject to punishment.

Park Joon-Ik of Whozland.com, an Internet mileage information provider, warned: "If companies keep up their shallow trick against their faithful customers, they will face strong protests from them, including boycotts of their products."

Cheon Seung-Hoon raphy@donga.com