Credit card usage has surged to a record, but what is driving it is not consumption, but the reward points and freebies associated with card spend that is driving it. Thanks to the mushrooming of fintechs, the gen-next is paying almost everything from house rent to groceries through their cards tied to some apps.
Average monthly spending through credit cards has doubled in three years from Rs 60,000 crore a month in FY’19-20 to Rs 1.2 lakh crore a month in FY’22-23, the Reserve Bank of India data indicates. The value of transactions touched a record Rs 1.4 lakh crore in May this year.