Credit Card Spending Falls 7% In January, Signalling Hit In Consumer Sentiment: Report

The credit card spending was down 7 per cent in January to Rs 8,000 crore indicating ease in consumer spending, The Economic Times reported citing sources.  

According to the report, almost all large banks witnessed a monthly slump in credit card spending. Only Axis Bank, Kotak Bank, and Mahindra Bank remained unhurt. Meanwhile, IndusInd Bank and American Express witnessed the sharpest fall in credit card spending. HDFC bank witnessed a decline of 8 per cent in January, whereas SBI Bank witnessed a fall of 6 per cent and ICICI Bank a drop of 5 per cent.

Though the spending per card fell 8 per cent to Rs 12,500 on a month-to-month (MoM) basis, it was still higher than the average of Rs 11,700 in the past one year. Moreover, the ticket size remained stable at Rs 4,400. However, the number of transactions fell 9 per cent MoM, as per the report. 

In terms of new customers, January witnessed a deceleration with the addition of over 1.3 million customers compared to 1.37 million in December. ICICI Bank outperformed other banks by adding 2,40,000 new customers in January, followed by HDFC which added nearly 2,10,000 new customers, with a loss of 54,000 customers compared to the year-ago period when the Reserve Bank of India imposed a restriction on the bank to sign up new customers. As a result, HDFC’s credit card market share has dropped 1.7 percentage points. SBI logged in 1,50,000 new customers in January.