A recent press report said that credit card transactions in the month of August were 29.1% which is greater than the transactions in the same month last year of about Rs.8078.98 crores. The estimated Credit card transaction were aggregated to Rs. 6,259.42 crore in August 2010. The credit cards circulation has come down by 6.7%, from Rs1.88 crores to Rs1.75 crores compared to the previous year.
According to the RBI data, credit card transaction during April-August was Rs 37,678.25 crore which was Rs 29024.75 crore last year. In the meantime the debit card transactions have gone up by 37.3% in the month of August. The debit card transactions have increased from Rs.4506.52 crore to Rs 3321.09 crore compared to the previous year.
According to experts, the usage of debit cards have gone up to Rs.25.14 crore from Rs.20 crore as of August 2011,the transactions were also raised by 43.57% to Rs.20, 4283.87 crore. The statement clearly states that there has been continual growth in the last fiscal. As of 2010-2011, the credit card transaction has also increased to 22.15% to touch Rs. 75,515.68 crore.
The banks’ have asked the RBI to take a break from its monetary tightening cycle as the retail portfolio of banks’ are becoming more expensive. Retail portfolio of banks include home loan, personal loans, car loan, mortgage loans, gold loans, education loan etc.