Credit card transactions value up 33% in Oct

Credit card transactions carried out in October were worth Rs 8,997.63 crore, up 33.1% from that in the same month last year, signifying that people are shifting to electronic means of payment.

The number of credit cards in circulation has, however, declined by 3.3% to 1.76 crore as of October 31, 2011, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data.

Credit card transactions during the April-October period were worth Rs 54,369.69 crore, up 30.1% from the comparable period of 2010-11.

Debit card transactions were up by 50.5% in October to Rs 5,591.06 crore.

There were over 25.55 crore debit cards in use as of October 31, 2011, up 22.8% from the year-ago period.

Transactions by debit card during April-October period were up 43.8% to Rs 20,176.26 crore.

Experts said the jump in transaction points to greater use of the electronic payments system as people move away from old formats of payment, especially in major urban centres.

In 2010-11, transactions through credit cards in the country went up by 22.15% to touch Rs 75,515.68 crore in value terms.

In addition, debit card transactions went up by 46.46% last fiscal to Rs 38,691.88 crore.