Value of credit card transactions up by 29% in Aug

Transactions carried out using credit cards in August were worth Rs 8,078.98 crore, 29.1% more than that in the same month last year.

Credit card transactions in August 2010 amounted to Rs 6,259.42 crore.

The number of credit cards in circulation has, however, declined by over 6.7% to 1.75 crore as of August 31, 2011, from 1.88 crore at the end of the same period last year.

According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, transactions using credit card during the April-August period of this fiscal stood at Rs 37,678.25 crore, against Rs 29,024.75 crore in the same period of 2010-11.

Meanwhile, debit card transactions were up by 37.3% in August to Rs 4,560.52 crore from Rs 3,321.09 crore in the corresponding month last year.

There were over 25.14 crore debit cards in use in the country as of August 31, 2011, up from 20 crore in the year-ago period.

Transactions by debit card during April-August period were up 43.5% to Rs 20,483.87 crore.

The latest jump in transactions through credit and debit cards signals continuation of growth observed in the last fiscal, according to experts.

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.

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