MUMBAI: Credit card transactions worth 8,421 crore were carried out in December, up 53 per cent as compared to the same month in 2010. The number of credit cards in circulation has, however, declined by 14.4 per cent to 1.76 crore as of December 31, 2011, according to the Reserve Bank data. Credit card transactions during the April-December period this fiscal were worth Rs 70,711 crore, up 54.5 per cent from the first three quarters of 2010-11. Debit card transactions, meanwhile jumped two-fold in December to Rs 4,877 crore. There were over 26.37 crore debit cards in use as of December, up 54.6 per cent from the year-ago period. Transactions by debit card during April-December period were up over two-fold to Rs 39,382 crore as compared to the previous year. 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 had gone up by 22.15 per cent to touch Rs 75,515.68 crore in value terms. Debit card transactions, on the other hand, went up by 46.46 per cent last fiscal to Rs 38,691.88 crore.