Hyundai Card (Hangul:현대카드) is a credit card company under Hyundai Motor Group headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. In 1995, Hyundai Motor Group acquired Diners Club Korea, and changed its name to Hyundai Card in 2001. The company’s strategic alliance with the GE Consumer Finance in October 2005 boosted the fledgling business in the heavily competitive Korean credit card market.
Starting with the launch of the company’s signature “Hyundai Card M” in May 2003, the company has unveiled a series of premium cards, including Korea’s first-ever VVIP card “the Black,” followed by “the Purple,” “the Red,” “the Green,” and “the Pink.”
The company also simplified its credit card portfolio by categorizing products into two in terms of the types of customer rewards ─ points and discounts. Its points-focused card series include M·M2·M3 BOOST, T3, and ZERO·ZERO MOBILE. Meanwhile, its discounts-focused products include X·X2·X3 BOOST, DIGITAL LOVER, and ZERO·ZERO MOBILE. In April 2021, Hyundai Card launched Z Series which consist of three types of cards – Z Family, Z Work and Z Ontact – depending on the areas the cards offer heavy discounts.
Seeking to transform into a digital company with its data science capabilities, Hyundai Card has been actively expanding its Private Label Credit Card (PLCC) business. With the establishment of a “data alliance” with PLCC partners, who are champions in their respective industries, Hyundai Card is creating synergy with those partners and laying the groundwork for long-term growth. The company has about 500 employees in its data science team, which is roughly one-third of its total headcount.
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 recent years, Hyundai Card has become known for its data science. The company has about 500 employees in its data science team, which is roughly one-third of its total headcount.
History
In October 2001, Hyundai Motor Group acquired Diners Club Korea and changed its name to Hyundai Card Co., Ltd. In May 2003, the company launched the signature Hyundai Card M and the Save Point service, which gives advanced M points, Hyundai Card’s own reward points, for Hyundai/Kia cars and other large purchases and retrieves the amount with the M points generated from future M card usage.
From 2004 the company released a series of “alphabet cards“ that are “tailored to the customers’ lifestyle.” The company became the biggest hit in the local credit card industry with the largest members of 8 million for a single credit card brand.
In 2005, the company has partnered with GE Consumer Finance – which later changed its name to GE Capital— allowing Hyundai Card to acquire GE’s risk management know-how and GE to acquire a portion of Hyundai brand. The company launched ”the Black“ in 2005 for the highest-end credit card users, followed by “the Purple” in 2006, “the Red” in 2008, “the Green” in 2018, and “the Pink” in 2020. The “Hyundai Card Zero,” launched in November 2011, is designed to keep up with the changing customer lifestyle.
In July 2013, the company announced “Hyundai Card Chapter Two,” a streamlining scheme of its product portfolio. All products were trimmed according to the two main pillars – point mileage and cashback—and instead the customers were given the choice to use their point mileage and cashback freely if they met with a certain usage standard.
In October 2015, the company launched ”Digital Hyundai Card” project, that goes beyond introducing mobile/online products, while changing its core nature to an agile and digital-oriented company.
Following the launch of Korea’s first PLCC “E-mart e card” in 2015, the company formed PLCC partnership with Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors in 2017. Then followed eBay Korea in 2018 as well as Costco, and SSG.COM, an e-commerce company affiliated with Shinsegae Group, in 2019. By the end of 2020, Hyundai Card partnered up with 10 different companies for its PLCC series. Hyundai Card has launched or is preparing to launch more PLCC products with 14 champion brands including SOCAR, MUSINSA, Genesis, and NAVER.
In March 2023, the company introduced Apple Pay for the first time in South Korea.
Products
Premium Card
the Black, the Purple, the Red, the Green, the Pink
Point Card
M·M2·M3 BOOST, T3, ZERO·ZERO MOBILE Edition2 (points-focused)
Discount Card
X·X2·X3 BOOST, DIGITAL LOVER, ZERO·ZERO MOBILE Edition2 (discounts-focused)