[BC Baro Air Plus Skypass] Recommended low-annual-fee card for local taxes and sole proprietors, for domestic use. Comparison and usage guide. Scheduled to be discontinued on February 3, 2025.

Hello.

I’m Dr. Baek, a dentist who dreams of becoming an implant craftsman and a gourmet.

Today I’m introducing a card that 1) has a low annual fee, 2) does not require monthly spending, and 3) earns unlimited Korean Air mileage. There are only a few things you need to know for effective credit card use, but the earning is good.. You could call it a card that’s good for spending without much thought!

For sole proprietors who like to travel, I highly recommend the 'Shinhan Card Marriott Bonvoy The Best' card. If you look at my previous post, you’ll see that with 60 million KRW in annual spending, you can receive Marriott Bonvoy 'Platinum' status. I recommended filling that spending with 'local taxes.' (For convenience, I’ve also set up automatic payments for employment insurance and workers’ compensation insurance.)

BC Baro Air Plus Skypass

https://www.bccard.com/app/card/CardIntdMain.do?gdsno=101924

This is the BC Baro Air Plus Skypass, a card known as a so-called 'local tax' earning card.

You need to understand why this card and the Shinhan Card Marriott Bonvoy The Best card are both listed as 'recommended local tax earning cards,' because the reason is different.

And this card is scheduled to be discontinued as of February 3, 2025. If a card is discontinued just two years after launch, that probably means it was good enough.

BC Baro Air Plus Skypass

How much do you earn when paying local taxes??

There are two basic types, but I’m only interested in Korean Air mileage, so I’ll focus on this one.

The basic earning rate is 1 Skypass mile per 1,000 KRW. That’s good.

However, there are many excluded items, and in fact most transactions are excluded.

If you look carefully, it says taxes and public charges (various taxes,~~~), so both national and local taxes are not eligible for the 'basic earning' rate.

However, you can earn rewards under the 'bonus earning' category.

If you look closely, quite a few items are excluded. Since it is 200 Skypass miles per 1 million KRW, local taxes effectively earn only 0.2 Skypass miles per 1,000 KRW.

What you need to remember is that because it earns 200 Skypass miles per 1 million KRW, you should try to make payments in amounts that break as close as possible to 1 million KRW units. Also, if only less than 1 million KRW is billed, there will be no bonus earning.

Also, the points are credited around D+7 after the payment date. This system is different from Lotte Card, which usually credits points 2-3 days later.

And if you look carefully, basic earning is credited after rounding to the first decimal place, but bonus earning is credited after rounding down. It’s a phrase that seems rather unfriendly to 'bonus earning'...

For payments over 50,000 KRW, you can get 2-3 months of interest-free installments, but there is no mileage earning.

Please note that it cannot currently be issued as VISA and is only available as MasterCard.

(I don’t think I’d use this card for overseas payments.. but the fees are relatively low.)

You shouldn’t expect valet parking or lounge access from a card with a 19,000 KRW annual fee, right? Haha

BC Baro Air Plus Skypass

It’s really hard to call this a local tax card..

Since it is being discontinued as of February 3, 2025, I researched it thoroughly, but I concluded that it is very difficult to call this a local tax card. The earning rate of 0.2 miles per 1,000 KRW or less is just.... Still, if you need to pay a one-time large local tax bill, it would of course be better than paying in cash. Or, if you can use interest-free installments, that might be better.

If you look at the eTax website, it briefly summarizes the types of local taxes.

Most individuals do not have many occasions to pay local taxes, and perhaps acquisition tax or property tax will be the main points. If such payments are expected to be 'significant' within 5 years after getting the card, it may be worth considering.

However, with an annual fee of 95,000 KRW over 5 years.. if you receive 200 miles per 1 million KRW, even valuing 1 mile very generously at 30 KRW, you would need to spend over 16 million KRW to break even. Haha. If you value it at 10 KRW, that’s around 50 million KRW. (Not easy, to be sure.)

Although it has been discontinued, if you happen to have a Lotte Diamond card, you can earn mileage or L Point when paying local taxes.

The annual fee is quite high, but it offers a Korean Air business-class 1+1 ticket service (to Southeast Asia), so if used well, it can be a very useful card. The Lotte Hotel valet parking service and free airport lounge access are bonuses.

BC Baro Air Plus Skypass

The best business card for earning Korean Air miles!?

As I wrote this post, I realized once again that I shouldn’t neglect studying..

Even today, I only knew the BC Baro Air Plus Skypass card as a 'local tax earning card'.....

(As it became known only as a local tax card, I actually overlooked it ㅠ.ㅠ)

People like me who have the Marriott Bonvoy The Best card probably passed this card by even more easily.

I’ll write about it later, but for Galaxy users who use Samsung Pay, the best-efficiency credit card that can earn 1.5 Korean Air miles per 1,000 KRW up to 4 million KRW per month is the KB Card The Heritage Smart.

Especially for business owners who have many 'ordinary payments' every month, credit cards become even more necessary.

In such cases, you would likely have the Hana Card Gold Club Members 2 card.. and this card also delivers efficiency of nearly 1.5 Skypass miles per 1,000 KRW.

After that, there surprisingly aren’t many credit cards that earn more than 1 Skypass mile per 1,000 KRW for 'ordinary payments.'

It does exceed 1 Skypass mile, but the annual fee is high and the earning rate is low. (Mine has no annual fee, so I just keep it..) On the other hand, Hana Miles has the advantage of being convertible into various uses.

1.2 Korean Air miles per 1,000 KRW earned

Therefore, the service that earns 200 Korean Air miles per 1 million KRW plays a very important role in making this a top-tier mileage-earning card, because as the payment amount grows, it converges toward earning 1.2 miles per 1,000 KRW.

As mentioned earlier,

1. low annual fee 2) no monthly spending requirement 3) unlimited Korean Air mileage earning

This card satisfies all three of these crazy conditions... With an annual fee of 19,000 KRW, it is practically the same as having no annual fee, and it earns 1.2 Korean Air miles per 1,000 KRW without limit at 'ordinary earning merchants'.. This is the significance of this card, and I think that is ultimately why issuance was stopped just two years after launch..

Furthermore, even the family card has no annual fee.

In the case of Samsung Card & Mileage, there are many special earning merchants, so it is popular among individual users, but it is not easy to achieve the efficiency of earning 1.2 Skypass miles per 1,000 KRW with the credit card you mainly use. I think this card might actually be better for mindless everyday use. Haha (It depends on the person, of course.)

Who would be a good fit for the BC Baro Air Plus Skypass?

First, you need to be eligible for 'bonus earning.' To do that, you’ll need monthly spending of at least 1 million KRW.

(If you don’t expect to use it much, the SKYPASS Lotte Amex would be better.)

And the less you use it for common 'special earning merchants' such as overseas, airlines, department stores, and duty-free shops, the more this card will shine. (Ironically, haha)

So it seems to be most recommended for sole proprietors who spend a lot at 'ordinary earning merchants.'

That said, for people who only occasionally incur a large 'local tax' payment, getting the card just to collect 'bonus earning' is not a bad option... But even though the annual fee of 19,000 KRW per year may seem small, over 5 years it comes close to 100,000 KRW, so you should decide whether to apply based on the amount of local tax you can pay (and your personal credit limit should also be considered).

I’m currently using all available local tax payments as a way to meet the annual 60 million KRW spending requirement for the Shinhan Card Marriott Bonvoy The Best card.. so I don’t think I’ll pay local taxes with this card.

Actually, I had planned a post to introduce the news of the discontinuation of the SKYPASS Lotte Amex card, which I love so much.. and to recommend applying for it..... but then I found a card that is scheduled to be discontinued even sooner, so I rushed to write this post.

It was a card I didn’t even own, but the earning rate of 1.2 Skypass miles per 1,000 KRW is quite good, so I think it would be a perfectly decent credit card for ordinary business-related payments. So I applied for it right away!

Still, if you’re a business owner and you intend to first meet the spending requirements for the previously mentioned 'KB Card Heritage Smart' and 'Hana Card Gold Club Members 2,' it would also be fine to optimize those two cards first and then consider this one. In that case, this card would become a lower-priority, third-choice option behind those cards.

All credit cards should be issued according to your own spending patterns and lifestyle.

If you have any questions or corrections, you are always welcome!

This has been Dr. Baek’s introduction to credit card studies!!