Credit card spends touched Rs 1.5 trillion in August, rising 2.7% month-on-month, aided by a sharp rise in transactions at point of sale terminals and e-commerce websites. Spends grew 32.2% year-on-year, boosted by rising consumption in tier-II and tier-III cities. In July, spends had risen 5.5% month-on-month to Rs 1.45 trillion.
Volume of transactions at point-of-sale terminals rose to 152.1 million in August, from nearly 143 million in July. Similarly, volume of credit card transactions on electronic-commerce websites increased to 138.5 million, from 134.3 million in July.
Overall, the volume of credit card transactions rose to 291.4 million in August, from 277.8 million in July.
Among specific issuers, American Express witnessed the sharpest M-o-M rise in spends at 10.1%. On a yearly basis, spends rose nearly 35%.
Among major credit card issues, spends on HDFC Bank’s cards fell nearly 0.1% M-o-M to Rs 39,489 crore in August.
Spends on SBICards and Payment Services, India’s only listed credit card issuer, grew nearly 6% to Rs 27,462 crore while the same on ICICI Bank cards rose nearly 3% to Rs 26,632 crore.
Spends on Axis Bank’s credit cards rose 0.5% to Rs 17,789 crore in August.
Total cards in force rose to 91.3 million as on August 30, from 89.9 million as on July 31.
In addition to categories like travel, and entertainment, customers are increasingly using credit cards for utility payments too, and this has led to a rise in overall spends, say experts.
Co-branding partnerships between card issuers and electronic commerce platforms like Amazon has also aided spends. Additionally, the rise in co-branded card partnerships between banks and non-banks, and increasing popularity of RuPay credit cards on unified payment interface have also helped increase the customer base for credit cards.