There are presently more than one million credit cards in circulation for total advances amounting to 1.6 billion rupees – the biggest chunk, 1.5 billion rupees, represent personal and professional sectors – which means that there has been a notable change in consumer behavior.
Consumers use credit cards for two purposes: (i) as a substitute for cash and cheques, and (ii) as a source of revolving credit. Therefore my concern is whether the consumer fully understands the costs and implications of using credit cards and whether credit cards are encouraging over-indebtedness, particularly for those least able to pay?