[Hana Gold Club Members 2] The Best Card for Sole Proprietors to Earn Korean Air Miles. Voucher Analysis. Airport Lounge Access Twice a Year. Hotel Valet Parking. A Look at Annual Fee Waivers.

Hello.

I’m Dr. Baek, a dentist who dreams of becoming a master of implants and a gourmet.

I’m very busy preparing to open my clinic. Sinsa Rev Dental Clinic is the second clinic I’m opening, and it is a place that provides treatment every day, including Sundays and holidays, seven days a week. From one-day laminate veneers made by the best ceramist to Invisalign and one-day prosthetic treatments (crowns, inlays, etc.), I’m opening it with the goal of offering treatment at a very cost-effective price.

I gave myself a little promotion because this new opening is related to this post.

As I also wrote on Threads, as I was spending a budget of around 2 billion KRW, the amount of credit card spending increased dramatically.

If you know me even a little, you’ll know I love traveling, so I make good use of Korean Air miles. I’ve collected over 1 million miles, and from here on I’ll need to keep earning more and use them even better.

As I was looking for the best credit card for earning Korean Air miles, I started this post because I thought it would be a shame to keep it to myself.

This is a post that would be useful for various high-spending sole proprietors, from professionals such as doctors and dentists.

Weren’t the separate national tax and local tax payment credit cards that are now discontinued such a shame?

The card I’m introducing today was once a legend, then was renewed and nerfed, and has returned anew.

Hana Gold Club Members 2

This is a very useful card if you have fixed monthly credit card spending of over 10 million KRW.

I’ll also tell you how to get the annual fee waived~ The voucher is decent, and you also get airport lounge access and hotel valet parking, so despite the modest annual fee, it’s a pretty good card.

This is the Hana Gold Club Members 2 card.

You can tell just by the name, right? There was a Hana Gold Club Members 1. That was the legendary card...

Gold Club Members 2 came out nerfed. Still good, though.

The unusual part is that you have to apply for and receive it at a Hana Bank branch.

You know that Hana Card’s best card, the Club One Card, also has to be reviewed and applied for at a branch, right??

The screening criteria for the Gold Club Members 2 card probably won’t be extremely brutal.

Different Korean Air mile accrual rates depending on the payment amount! Worth it only if you spend more than 6 million KRW per month.

This is a Korean Air mileage credit card with a slightly special structure.

The key point is that the higher the billed amount, the higher the earning rate!

As you can see, the mileage accrual rate differs by payment amount tier.

That’s why I said this card is favorable for sole proprietors with a lot of recurring payments! If you’re a sole proprietor, you’ll know: a lot of money comes in and goes out, but what actually remains for you is miles...

Up to 2 million KRW: 1 mile per 1,500 KRW. 1,333 miles = 0.67 mile per 1,000 KRW

2 to 4 million KRW: 1.5 miles per 1,500 KRW. Cumulative 1,333 + 2,000 = 3,333 miles = 0.83 mile per 1,000 KRW

4 to 8 million KRW: 2 miles per 1,500 KRW. 3,333 + 5,333 = 8,666 miles = 1.08 miles per 1,000 KRW

Amounts exceeding 8 million KRW earn 3 miles per 1,500 KRW, but the cumulative accrual limit is 20,000 miles.

If you calculate it, you’ll reach 20,000 miles with a payment of 13.67 million KRW. = 1.46 miles per 1,000 KRW

Usually, most credit cards give at best 1 mile per 1,000 KRW, excluding the “special accrual” category.

As you can calculate, if you spend 6 million KRW, you get 6,000 miles, which is 1 mile per 1,000 KRW.

In other words, if you spend more than 6 million KRW every month, using this card can be advantageous.

Also, if you reach 13.67 million KRW, you can get the best-in-class mileage accrual of 1.46 miles per 1,000 KRW. (Since Gold Club Members 1 apparently had no 20,000-mile cap, it must have been truly legendary...)

However, there are many excluded transactions. As sole proprietors, the taxes we usually worry about—national tax and local tax—are not eligible... Social insurance premiums also do not earn points. In addition, management fees, city gas, water, electricity, and so on are not eligible... Tuition is also not eligible, and so is ㅅㅌㅋ. If you think about it as only basic accruals, that’s really all there is.

You probably won’t use this much, but it waives social insurance premiums and national tax fees, up to a combined monthly limit of 50,000 KRW.

Since it’s 0.8% and the cap is 50,000 KRW... dividing 50,000 by 0.8% gives 6.25 million KRW in spending!

Let’s look at the voucher. What benefit is the most worthwhile?

If you choose Mastercard, the annual fee is 130,000 KRW. It looks like the voucher is worth about 100,000 KRW.

As far as I know, when I spoke with the customer service agent, most people said they received a 100,000 KRW Shinsegae gift certificate.

There’s a reason for that. When I tried to issue a Korean Air ticket from Seoul to Jeju, the benefit wasn’t equivalent to 100,000 KRW... because you can only purchase full-fare Korean Air tickets. So if you can buy discounted tickets, it doesn’t help at all... There are a lot of limitations too...

So I recommend simply choosing the 100,000 KRW Shinsegae gift certificate exchange voucher. You can use Shinsegae gift certificates at Shinsegae Duty Free, after all~ haha

Well... there are conditions for the voucher, but realistically, this card is mostly for people with monthly spending of over 6 million KRW, so I think you can ignore them. If you’re only going to spend 10 million KRW a year, there’s no need to use this card.

Can you get the annual fee waived?

If you reach Hana Card Membership VVIP status, you can get the annual fee waived. The First tier only waives annual fees for products priced at 30,000 KRW or less, while VVIP waives the annual fee for products up to 130,000 KRW~

To receive VVIP status, you just need to be among the top 3,000 people in total amount. Of course, that won’t be easy.... 100 million KRW probably won’t be enough.

Or, if you get a Hana Club One Card, VVIP status is automatically granted.

The annual fee waiver is not a full waiver in the first year—you still have to pay the first year’s annual fee!!

It’s waived starting in the second year, so from the second year onward, you just need to receive the 100,000 KRW Shinsegae gift certificate every year..

And annual fee waivers due to membership status are not affected by how many cards you have.

So if you become VVIP,

The famous JADE Classic Card, which has an annual fee of 120,000 KRW, would also be waived.

A feature of this card is that it offers airport lounge access for a companion. It’s free three times a year, and up to two companions are allowed, so while most cards allow only one companion, being able to bring two means a family of three can use the lounge together!! That’s a really great benefit, in my opinion.

THE LOUNGE, twice a year benefit

THE LOUNGE, which is basically the nationwide standard app now.

If you hold the Gold Club Members 2 Hana Card, you can use the eligible lounges twice a year.

However, please note that you need to spend at least 500,000 KRW in the previous month.

Valet parking service at luxury hotels

If you meet the previous month’s spending requirement of 500,000 KRW or more, you can receive valet parking service at the hotels listed above.

Three times a month, so in terms of frequency, I think it’s pretty good.

There aren’t many hotels, though. Looking at the list, I felt these are hotels where it would be difficult to just park and go somewhere else.

Examples include Grand Hyatt Seoul, The Shilla Seoul, Seoul Dragon City, and so on..ㅎㅎ..

Still, it’s nice to have a card like this, so for an annual fee of 130,000 KRW, I think it’s usable.

Valet parking service at luxury hotels

A lot of people don’t use this service, right?

It provides parking valet service when using Incheon Airport.

I mainly use it when going to Terminal 2, and they provide free valet parking service worth 20,000 KRW.

You can park your car at the airport and go straight to the departure hall... it’s a huge benefit. In winter, if you leave your padded jacket in the car, it can substitute for a coat storage service.

For Terminal 2, the one-day parking fee is 9,000 KRW, so it’s actually a pretty good deal. You can’t ignore fuel costs, but a typical airport bus one-way fare is about 17,000 KRW per person... for two people taking four round trips, that’s equivalent to eight days’ worth of parking fees.

Again, the previous month’s spending of 500,000 KRW is required.

Who would benefit from the Gold Club Members 2 Hana Card?

I like traveling (I go as many as 8 times a year..ㅎㅎ), so I make useful use of Korean Air miles. As a wage earner, it’s almost impossible to consistently spend more than 6 million KRW a month with just one card, so this card will probably be useful for people running businesses as sole proprietors. Just remember the number 13.67 million KRW, and it will help a lot. In one year, you can accumulate 240,000 SkyPass miles.

The annual fee is 130,000 KRW, but 100,000 KRW can be recovered with an easy-to-use Shinsegae gift certificate. The effective annual fee is 30,000 KRW... so you could say it’s almost like having no annual fee!! If you’re a Hana Card VVIP, the annual fee is waived, so you should definitely get it. It’s like earning 100,000 KRW every year..

Lastly, while it may not feel extraordinary (since you probably already have several premium credit cards..), I think hotel valet parking three times a month and airport valet service are good benefits. It also provides airport lounge access twice a year, so it seems to have the basics covered.

If you’re a Hana Card VVIP, it might not be a bad idea to also get one JADE Classic card for easy lounge access with two companions.

Cards that offer more benefits to consumers are disappearing at a rapid pace. That’s probably because card fees were lowered... and because consumers have become too smart now.

If you’re a sole proprietor who likes traveling, I think this is a very good choice. For people like me who run a clinic, this is a credit card I’d recommend at least once.

However, please consider that you’ll need to start a relationship with Hana Bank (?) when deciding whether to apply!!

That concludes Dr. Baek’s introductory course in credit card studies!!