[By NBC-1TV H. J Yook]Citibank Korea, Inc. (CEO Ha Yung Ku) will launch “Very Good Revolving Loan” on January 9 which provides an annual 3% interest rate discount additionally to a contracted interest rate for customers who use less than 5% of the total overdraft limit.

Overdraft loans in general apply the same interest rate to the total limit regardless of an actual outstanding loan amount. However, this new product is designed to give an additional 3% discount on an annual interest rate when customers use less than 5% of the total revolving limit to reduce customers’ burden.

For example, a customer who opens a “Very Good Revolving Loan” account at an interest rate of 7% at year with a limit of 30 million won may need to use the loan to pay an unexpected card spending amount. If using up to 1.5 million won or 5% of the 30 million won limit, the customer will be able to pay a 4% interest rate discounted by 3% annually from the contracted rate of 7% a year. However, if the revolving loan amount taken by the customer grows more than 1.5 million won, the customer has to pay the original 7% interest rate on the total outstanding loan amount.

An official from the bank explained that in an internal survey about 70% of revolving loan customers open the account to prepare for emergency and use only a part of the revolving limit in particular. Based on this result, the bank designed this product to allow salaried workers take small amount loans without a burden from high interest rates.