Outstanding Debit Cards Stood at 1.03 Billion As of July, While Credit Cards Were at 122.9 Million, the Latest Data From the RBI Shows.

Card payments in India are poised for steady growth as deeper financial inclusion, rising incomes and easier access encourage electronic transactions, according to analytics firm GlobalData. Debit cards remain dominant, but consumers are gradually leaning toward credit, attracted by benefits such as reward points, discounts, and instalment options, the London-based firm said in a report published Friday. It expects credit card usage to grow after integration with the Unified Payments Interface, the country's home-grown real-time payment system.

India brought a much larger share of its population into formal financial services over the past decade, aided by wider bank-account ownership and inclusion initiatives like direct benefit transfers. That expansion has coincided with an exponential surge in digital transactions, especially low-value payments through UPI. The Reserve Bank of India's Financial Inclusion Index — which captures financial literacy, consumer protection, and inequalities and deficiencies in services — rose to 70 as of March-end from 67 a year earlier, extending its steady climb.

Outstanding debit cards stood at 1.03 billion as of July, while credit cards were at 122.9 million, the latest data from the RBI shows. Lower adoption of credit and charge cards reflects limited formal borrowing histories in large parts of the population, particularly in rural areas, as well as concerns over interest costs and debt, said GlobalData. The expansion of the middle-class workforce, rising incomes, and greater awareness — amplified by banks' promotional campaigns — are supporting their adoption, the report said.