Demand for debit and prepaid cards is declining while preference for credit cards is rising

Due to the largest YoY (year over year) increase, credit cards are becoming more and more popular in the nation.

As to the India Digital Payments Report for H2 2023 (July to December) released by Worldline, a prominent player in the payment services industry worldwide, credit cards had the greatest YoY increase in December 2023, rising by 21% to 97.9 million. Prepaid cards, with a YoY increase of 13% to 325 million, came next. The number of debit cards increased by a pitiful 2% to 960.8 million.

The number of debit cards increased by a pitiful 2% to 960.8 million.
Of all the credit cards issued, public sector banks issued 24% and private sector banks issued 71%, respectively, while public sector banks issued 65% and private sector banks issued 24% of the debit cards.

Card transaction volume decreased as opposed to card issuance. Debit card transactions drove the majority of this reduction, while credit card transactions saw an increase.

1.15 billion debit card transactions were made in the second half of 2023 (July to December), representing a 34% YoY decrease. Conversely, compared to H2 2022, credit card transactions increased by 21% YoY to 1.78 billion. Value-wise, credit card transactions reached Rs 9.39 trillion, a sharp increase of 11% from H2 2022; in contrast, debit card transactions fell to Rs 3.02 trillion, a drop of 16%, and prepaid card transactions fell to Rs 241 billion, a drop of 30%.