Woori Bank will actively venture into "growing budget mobile phones." Woori Bank has set a strategy to quickly secure initial customers by launching special products that offer high interest rates to create synergy between communication and finance through budget mobile phones.
According to the financial industry on the 14th, Woori Bank plans to launch a savings account called Woori WON Mobile, a combined product with its budget mobile phone brand, WON Mobile, on the 15th. It is a free deposit savings account available for one account per real name, with a subscription period of 12 months and a maximum monthly limit of 200,000 won. Notably, the interest rate can be as high as 7% per annum. The basic interest rate for this product is 3% per annum, but an additional 4% preferential interest rate can be applied if customers subscribe to Woori WON Mobile (3% per annum) and set up automatic transfer for their mobile fees (1% per annum).
This savings product has the highest interest rate among non-face-to-face products from both Woori Bank and other commercial banks. Considering that the current interest rate for Woori Bank's free deposit WON Savings is around 3.1%, this new product offers more than double that. Although budget mobile phones are not a revenue-generating product for banks, it is significant in securing potential future customers through this linkage with financial services.
The customer acquisition strategy through combined products has proven effective, as seen when Kookmin Bank started its budget mobile phone business. Previously, Kookmin Bank introduced a savings product with a monthly subscription limit of 1 million won when launching budget mobile phone LIVEM in 2020, offering preferential interest rates based on the subscription period, making it the first of its kind in the financial industry. It garnered attention not only for the preferential interest rates but also for providing a congratulatory gift upon maturity, alongside economical rate plans and financial benefits.
As of the 10th, the number of subscribers to Woori WON Mobile has surpassed 10,000. This figure was achieved three weeks after its launch on the 18th of last month, marking an extraordinary growth rate. In comparison, Kookmin Bank's KB Livem surpassed 10,000 subscribers just over a month after its launch in 2019. The limit for this special product from Woori Bank is 50,000 accounts. Considering that Kookmin Bank crossed 50,000 subscribers in the fourth month, Woori Bank aims to surpass that number in a short period.
The surge in Woori Bank's budget mobile phone subscribers has also been influenced by the recent SKT SIM card information leakage incident. Following the hacking incident, it has been reported that inquiries for subscriptions through the Woori WON Mobile customer center have increased. While Kookmin Bank's budget mobile brand KB Livem uses the networks of all three major providers—SKT, KT, and LG Uplus—Woori WON Mobile only operates on the LG Uplus network.
The number of budget mobile phone subscribers in the country is showing a growing trend. According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, as of February this year, the number of budget mobile phone subscribers reached 9.65 million, an increase of 100,000 compared to the previous month. The industry is strongly predicting that it will surpass 10 million by the end of the year. During the same period, the market share of budget mobile phones rose to 16.9%, an increase of 3.4 percentage points compared to the same month last year. To celebrate the launch of its budget mobile service, Woori Bank is offering high-end products through a lottery to those who self-activate their services by the 31st of this month, along with membership benefits.