Credit card usage 30 times of debit card payments in a year

Indians use a credit card for an average payment amount of about Rs 55,000 in a year — nearly 30 times the money spent through debit cards.

However, the number of debit cards in the country is more than 15 times that of credit cards, shows an analysis of data available with Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

At the end of the last financial year, 2011-12, there were a total of 17.6 million credit cards in the country, which rose further to 18 million by June 2012.

On the other hand, the number of debit cards stood at over 290 million as on June 30, up from 278 million at the end of March, RBI data shows.

During 2011-12, the total amount spent through credit cards was Rs 96,614 crore — giving an average transaction size of Rs 54,738 per card in a year.

In comparison, the debit cards were used for transactions worth Rs 53,432 crore in 2011-12, leading to an average transaction size of Rs 1,920 on every card in a year.

In the first quarter of the current fiscal, the average credit card transaction size was nearly 29 times of the debit card payments. In the April-June, a total of Rs 28,465 crore were spent through 18 million cards, giving an average of Rs 15,805 for these three months.