Credit card transactions up over 26% in Feb

Transactions worth Rs 6,212.92 crore were carried out in the country through credit cards in February 2011, registering a growth of 27.82% compared to the same month last year.

Credit card transactions during February 2010 were at Rs 4,923.11 crore, according to RBI data.

The number of credit cards in circulation have, however, declined by almost 10% to 1.81 crore as on February 28, 2011, from 2.01 crore in the same period last year.

During the April-February period of the fiscal, the total transactions carried out via credit cards increased 22.16% to Rs 68,548.36 crore as against Rs 56,112.05 crore in the April-February period of Feb11.

Meanwhile, debit card transactions in February were up by 49.44% to Rs 3,304.43 crore, as against Rs 2,211.16 crore in the corresponding month last year.

There were 22.23 crore debit cards in use in the country as on February 28, 2011, up almost 25% over the figure of 17.79 crore in the year-ago period.

In April-February period, the total transactions carried out by debit cards jumped by 47.28%, to Rs 35,333.67 crore, from Rs 23,990.99 crore in the first 11 months of the last fiscal.