Number of credit cards drops 21% in India in 2011

However, the number of premium credit card holders rose in the year

The total number of credit card- holders declined to 21% in 2011 in the country, though the number of premium card holders rose to 29%.

India also witnessed the fastest growth in the platinum card segment, from 18% in 2010 to 29% in 2011, on account of a rise in the mass affluent segment and the focused sourcing of customers with a higher income levels by the issuing banks, an HSBC Credit Card Monitor Survey said.

"This comes even as the country saw a 2 percentage point drop in the number of credit card-holders last year," HSBC India consumer assets head Manish Sinha said in the report.

"The role of benefits and rewards in attracting new and loyal customers is growing in importance," he said.

Significantly, the survey also finds that more and more card-holders have reduced the number of cards in their wallet and consolidated spending with a single card in 2011.

The proportion of single card-holders has grown most in India in 2011 at 90%. The second was the Philippines with 84%, followed by Malaysia (80%).

Interestingly, credit card offers are perceived differently across Asia. For instance, Indonesians rank worldwide card acceptance as the most important feature (50%), whereas only 2% of Hongkongers feel so.

Singapore registered the highest number of platinum card holders at 71%.

In Asia, Hong Kong had the highest penetration of credit cards in 2011 with 77% of the people polled saying they use credit cards.

The survey interviewed around 5,000 general card-holders, mostly in the 18-54 age-group, in India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines during May-November 2011.