Smart chuseok shoppers stack Onuri voucher discounts with card cashback

Park, a 36-year-old shopper preparing for chuseok, bought 200,000 won ($147) worth of digital Onuri gift vouchers on Sunday at a 10% discount. With reports that a chuseok table spread for a family of four can cost more than 300,000 won, she was looking for any way to ease the burden. "At first I thought there wouldn't be many places to use them, but when I looked around the market I found more participating stores than I expected," Park said. "I'm planning to use them for regular grocery shopping too."

As grocery prices continue to climb, a money-saving strategy combining discounted Onuri voucher purchases with card cashback rewards is gaining attention. Consumers who stocked up on Onuri vouchers during the chuseok special sale — which offered discounts of up to 10% — can register a payment card to receive additional cashback. Financial institutions are also broadening their perks beyond traditional markets to cover food delivery and highway rest stops, targeting holiday spending demand.

According to government sources, Onuri gift vouchers are available at a 7% discount on purchases of up to 1 million won per month. During special sales periods ahead of Lunar New Year and chuseok, an additional 200,000-won purchase limit is added at a 10% discount. This year's chuseok special sale ran for five days from Sept. 16 through Sunday, with the discount rate raised to 10%. By making full use of these holiday sale windows, shoppers can purchase up to 1.2 million won worth of vouchers.

Kakao Bank is running a cashback event linked to its debit card for digital Onuri vouchers through Dec. 31. After signing up for the event and registering a Kakao Bank debit card in the digital Onuri app, users receive 3% back on the amount deducted from their voucher balance when paying at participating stores. The monthly cashback cap is 3,000 won.

For example, if a shopper loads a 50,000-won digital Onuri voucher during the chuseok period at the 10% discounted price of 45,000 won and spends the full amount, they receive a total benefit of 6,500 won — a 5,000-won voucher discount plus 1,500 won in card cashback. Onuri voucher payments also count toward Kakao Bank debit card spending for the previous month's usage record. Purchases made at traditional markets may qualify for a 40% income deduction if the relevant tax requirements are met.

KB Kookmin Card's KB Traditional Market Onuri Debit Card offers a 5% rebate on both traditional market purchases and Onuri voucher deduction payments. Cardholders who spent at least 400,000 won the previous month and make individual transactions of at least 10,000 won can receive up to 2,000 won off per category each month. The two discounts can be applied together.

Onuri vouchers can also be put to use when ordering food delivery, not just at traditional markets.

On Shinhan Bank's community-focused delivery app Ddaenggyeoyo, users can find stores that accept Onuri voucher payments and place orders using the vouchers. If the vouchers were purchased at a discount, that savings carries over to the cost of the delivered food. Ordering through Shinhan's Super SOL platform adds point accumulation benefits on top. Applying delivery app coupons widens the discount further.

For instance, if a user orders 24,000 won worth of food from a store that accepts Onuri vouchers and applies a 3,000-won brand coupon and a 2,000-won event coupon, the payment comes to 19,000 won. Paying with Onuri vouchers purchased at a 7% discount brings the actual outlay down to 17,670 won — up to 6,330 won less than the original menu price.

Ddaenggyeoyo discounts are also available at highway rest stops during the holiday break. Orders of 5,000 won or more receive 1,000 won off, and orders of 50,000 won or more receive 5,000 won off, with no limit on the number of uses. The app's "Nationwide Rest Stops" category lets users find QR-order-enabled rest stops on a map and locate the nearest one to their current position.

"As the burden of grocery prices grows, more consumers are combining traditional markets and Onuri vouchers with card perks to cut spending," a financial industry official said. "Financial firms are also expanding related benefits in line with that demand."