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Debit card more popular than credit card in India
By siliconindia
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Thursday, 02 April 2009, 22:26 IST |
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Mumbai: The appeal of the credit cards on Indian consumers compared to debit cards have significantly reduced. The number of debit card transactions between September 2008 and February 2009 saw an increase of 36.6 percent as against an increase of 25 percent for credit cards, a study said.
"The Indian consumer is treading cautiously when it comes to purchases and is exhibiting a credit-averse behavior. The 'pay now' feature of debit cards discourages dependency on credit and helps in better financial planning and control of purchases by the consumers," said Piyush Khaitan, Managing Director, Venture Infotek. The findings based on the study conducted by Venture Infotek, maintains that the daily transactions through debit cards increased by 27.2 percent, while credit card transactions increased by 13.3 percent in the period under review.
A six-month time period was taken for the study to substantiate what the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) information states, said the company. As per recently released RBI data, the total value of Point-of-Sale (PoS) transactions through debit cards from April-January 2009 registered an increase of 51.4 percent over the same period last year. For credit cards, the report registered 17.4 percent increase in value of PoS transactions for this period. The increasing acceptance of debit cards among both physical and online merchants and with the banks going slow on issuing credit cards, are driving spends through debit cards.