Ticket size squeeze: Average spend per credit card falls 13% to ₹17,060 YoY

The Indian credit card landscape in January 2026 presents a startling paradox: while banks are successfully putting more plastic into wallets, cardholders are becoming increasingly cautious with their spending. Average spend per credit card has dropped 3.5 per cent month-on-Month (MoM) in January to ₹17,060, as per the Monthly Credit Card Insights report from Asit C. Mehta Investment Interrmediates Ltd.

 

The headline numbers for January indicate a broad-based cooling of the credit card market:

 

Average Spend per Card: Dropped 3.5% Month-on-Month (MoM) to ₹17,060, as the increase in active cards outpaced the growth in total spending.

 

Average Spend per Transaction: Witnessed a 3% MoM decline and a sharp 13% Year-on-Year (YoY) fall, signaling a definitive move toward smaller, more frequent transactions rather than high-value purchases.

 

Total Industry Spends: Moderated to ₹1,990 billion, representing a 2.7% MoM decline (down by ₹56 billion from December 2025).

 

Transaction Volumes: Remained virtually flat MoM at 537 million, though they showed a 24.9% YoY increase.

 

The "Big Four" Drag and Market Reshuffle

The decline in monthly spending was not uniform across the industry; it was largely pulled down by the dominant "top four" banks, which accounted for 87.5% of the total reduction:

 

SBI Card: Saw the most significant impact with an ₹18.7 billion decline (-4.7% MoM).

 

ICICI Bank: Reported a drop of ₹16.9 billion (-4.6% MoM).

 

Axis Bank: Decreased by ₹6.3 billion (-2.7% MoM).

 

HDFC Bank: Experienced a softer decline of ₹7.2 billion (-1.3% MoM), which actually allowed it to gain 43bps in market share, rising to 28.4%.

 

In contrast, mid-sized players like Federal Bank and Yes Bank managed modest MoM growth in spending, albeit on a much smaller base.

 

Issuance Growth: Deepening or Just Cross-Selling?

Banks added 0.87 million new cards in January, bringing the total cards in force to 116.7 million. However, the fact that aggregate spending failed to scale alongside this growth suggests a strategic bottleneck:

 

Spend Redistribution: Experts believe many new cards are being issued to existing cardholders. Instead of increasing their total budget, these users are simply spreading their existing spends across multiple cards.

 

Cross-Sell Over New Acquisition: The report indicates that current portfolio expansion is being driven more by cross-selling to a known customer base rather than a meaningful deepening of the customer pool.

 

Industry Outlook: The Small-Ticket Pivot

The current trend reflects a "value vs. volume" struggle. While digital payments and credit accessibility are at an all-time high, the decline in per-transaction value (down 13% YoY) suggests that consumers are using credit cards for everyday, lower-value needs—perhaps for POS convenience—rather than for major lifestyle upgrades or big-ticket investments.

 

"While card issuance remains steady, aggregate spends and transaction volumes have not scaled proportionately. This suggests that a significant portion of incremental cards may be issued to existing credit card customers, leading to spend redistribution across multiple cards rather than expansion in overall industry spends. The current trend, therefore, indicates portfolio expansion is likely driven more by cross-sell than by meaningful customer base deepening," said the report.

 

Here are the key highlights: 

• Credit card spending remained subdued at ₹1,990 bn, declining 2.7% MoM but growing 8.1% YoY, with weakness largely driven by lower spending from top four banks 
• Transaction volumes remained flat sequentially at 537 million transactions, though still registering 24.9% YoY growth
• Card issuance continued to stay healthy, with 0.87 million new cards added during the month, taking total cards outstanding to 116.7 million
• HDFC Bank gained 43 bps MoM in spending market share to 28.4%, supported by a relatively softer decline in spends, while SBI and ICICI Bank lost 39 bps and 34 bps, respectively 
• Among mid-sized banks, Yes Bank and Federal Bank gained market share, with Federal Bank showing strong card base expansion, reporting 83% YoY growth in cards outstanding
• The top four banks (HDFC Bank, SBI, ICICI Bank, and Axis Bank) continued to dominate, accounting for 76.5% of total industry spends, while the top 10 banks maintained a 93% share, highlighting sustained market concentration
•