Just like the growth of Mobile Phones in India, Debit Cards have witnessed exponential growth. According to a latest release by the RBI here are some facts of Debit Cards in India.
- 2 Million debit card customers are added every month
- The Debit Card user base in India now stands at 85 Million
- Debit Card user base has doubled in 2 years
- State bank of India has issued the largest number of debit cards – 30 million
- ICICI bank has issued 20 million debit cards
- Debit Cards double up as ATM cards and are mostly used for the withdrawing money
- The average spend at merchant establishments using debit cards is mere Rs 1,000
- A very small percentage of people actually use debit cards for retail shopping in India. Most Debit Card purchases are for – Petrol, Restaurant and Clothes.
- People still prefer to use Credit Cards for purchase of Air Tickets, Jewellery or White Goods
CardBhai recommends its readers not to use Debit Cards at merchant Locations if you maintain high bank balance. Why ? Because, just like Credit Card fraud, Debit Cards can also be used in fraud [Remember the extra small swipe machine they kept to steal data from your card’s magnetic strip and loaded it onto another card and used to make purchases which you are not liable to pay ?] Indian Banks are really ripping their customers off without giving any protection against FRAUD. Yes, I maintain a very high bank balance and HDFC Bank is the only modern bank that provides an option not to take Debit card. Thus the only way money can go out of my account is a Cheque, which is the safest instrument in India.