Indians prefer credit cards for online shopping, debit card at physical shops

Indians spend 76% more on their credit cards online than they do in stores, data shows.

According to RBI data, Indians opt to purchase with credit cards online, while debit cards are more frequently used in physical shops. The data released in March states that 7.3 crore credit cardholders spent Rs 68,327 crore online, compared to Rs 38,773 crore spent in stores using card swipe machines.

Further, 91.7 crore debit cards were used for 20.8 crore retail transactions and 11.9 crore online transactions. This means that about one in five debit cards was used for in-store buys, and about one in ten was used for online orders.

Private lender issued the highest number of cards, at 25%, which is roughly 1.3 crore cards. Then comes the with 19 lakh cards, having a 16% growth. is next in the line with its card base of 26% adding 90 lakh cards.

Due to an RBI ban on adding new users for nearly eight months, , the largest player, ranked fourth. As a result, its card base only expanded by 10%.

Having 7.8 lakh new cards, was the fastest-growing of the top five. Bank got 5.6 lakh cards after releasing its differential card service.

With 5.6 lakh cards, SBM Bank, which has successfully worked with fintech start-ups, made it into the top ten. added 4.6 lakh cards last year, bringing the total number of cardholders to 11 lakh.

Foreign banks experienced the biggest fall in FY22, followed by American Express, which was prohibited from onboarding new clients by the RBI until it met data storage criteria.