Indian's love for prepaid cards offer $93-Billion business per year
By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 21 September 2010, 20:14 IST   |    5 Comments
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Indian's love for prepaid cards offer $93-Billion business per year
Bangalore: The convenience brought by the prepaid cards has won 80 percent of Indians hearts. Prepaid cards offering the flexibility and benefits of cashless transactions has opened up a huge market. Now, the potential of India in the prepaid payment card segment is as huge as $93-billion per annum and that is going to grow multiple in the coming years. According to the recent survey conducted by global payment technology company Visa, found that current penetration of prepaid cards at two percent offers a huge opportunity for Indian banks. Prepaid card has got a wide reach and the volume of use has overtaken in the country in recent times. Earlier it was used only for Internet purchases in crucial situations and now it has become a constant companion for majority of Indians for every purchase be it in gas stations, online stores and grocery stores. Reducing ATM visits and escapism from the long queue are some other major factors that attract consumers to pre-paid cards. Nagendra Kumar a Bangalorean techie said "I prefer to use prepaid cards due to its easy access. Applying for a prepaid card is really easy; all you have to do is to apply online from any reputed company offering the card. On filling the form, you can choose the payment method you prefer like Money order, bank wire transfer and personal checks." Axis Bank has achieved an $1-billion in total volume on Visa Travel prepaid cards recently. Around 1,000 companies in India are using Visa pre-paid cards for paying salaries which can be reloaded. "Prepaid cards can offer you so many benefits, and financial freedom, a person with bad credit rating still has something to look for in life. What I like the most is it doesn't demand a bill pay or interest like the regular cards charge. For an ordinary man, or students across the country provides a credit limit that can have a control over the expense," said Soundarya Viswanathan, an axis bank employee.

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