Overseas Card Spending Hits Record High

South Koreans’ credit card spending in foreign countries soared to a record high last year as more people went abroad for holidays and study, the central bank said Friday.

Overseas card spending by domestic residents totaled $4.84 billion in 2006, up 32.8 percent from a year ago. The amount includes the card spending abroad by foreigners living in the country, but that growth is not as high as spending by Koreans, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The number of Koreans who used cards more than once to buy goods and services overseas increased 19 percent year-on-year to 7.05 million.

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