Indians Prefer Credit Over Debit Card

Sunainaa Chadha/Business Standard

In June 2024, India saw a significant increase in the number of credit, debit, and prepaid cards, reaching a total of 1.451 billion cards -- an 11 per cent jump from the previous year, according to the India Digital Payments report for the first half of 2024 (January to June) by payment technology service provider Worldline.

In the first half of 2024, card transactions totaled 3.735 billion, which is a 3 per cent increase compared to the same period last year. However, there were mixed results for different card types.

Credit card transactions rose 32 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to 2.04 billion. However, debit card transactions saw a 33 per cent drop. Prepaid card transactions saw a rise of  8 per cent.

The total value of card transactions also surged to Rs 13.49 trillion, marking a 21 per cent increase.

The driving force was credit cards, which saw a 37 per cent rise in transaction value, reaching Rs 10.62 trillion.

The average ticket size for credit cards rose to Rs 5,190 compared to Rs 4,992 in the first half of 2023. This represents a 4 per cent increase.