16.2.10

Of credit cards & debit cards

The popularity of credit cards has taken a severe beating in India over the past couple of years. The base fell by 16.4 per cent, or over 4 million, to 20.64 million in the nine months ending December 2009. In fact, in the period since April 2008, the base has shrunk by more than a fourth, or 7.67 million, according to the Reserve Bank of India.
On the other hand, the number of outstanding debit cards jumped 21.35 per cent to 170.56 million in the nine months ending December 2009.Debit card payments too increased over 40 per cent to Rs 19,288.83 crore in the first three quarters of the current fiscal against Rs 13,722.44 crore in the year-ago period. Even as the debit card base rose steeply, the decline in number of credit cards has been consistent per month between April and November 2009.
Credit card outstandings too dropped by Rs 7,412 crore, a 24.7 per cent deceleration, to Rs 22,635 crore as against a rise of Rs 6,147 crore (or a 25.7 per cent rise) in the same period of last year. Credit card transactions, in fact, declined by over Rs 4,800 crore to Rs 45,756.47 crore in the first nine months of this fiscal against Rs 50,578.92 crore in the year ago period.

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