71% Indians use credit cards for dining; Amex study

Seventy-one per cent of credit card owners in India use their plastic money for dining out, while a 68 per cent prefer to use their cards for shopping.

Also, India stands in the second position among 10 countries in respect of the highest number of credit card holders who use their cards for cash advances, says a survey called 'Share of Wallet' conducted by the American Express Bank (Amex).

The survey was conducted among users of 2,975 various brands of credit cards in Australia, India, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

Thirty-two per cent of the Indian credit card users said they anticipate their plastic card spending to increase in the next six months.

Among the 350 credit card holders in Thailand, 39 per cent supported the views of their Indian counterparts and only 10 per cent of credit card users in Singapore said they are optimistic of their plastic card spend in the next six months.

Only 16 per cent of the Indian credit card holders said that usage of their credit card spending will decrease in the next half-year.

Among 356 credit card users in the country, who took part in the survey, 17 per cent said they use their plastic cards frequently for cash advances against 22 per cent credit card users in New Zealand who like to use their cards for the same purpose.

Only one per cent of the credit card users in Australia use their cards for cash advances, while two per cent of card holders in Indonesia take cash advances against their cards and five per cent of the card holders in Singapore withdraw cash using their credit cards.

"The study confirms that a significant number of people are seeking the convenience of not having to carry cash, and the usage of cards is widening. At Amex, we are planning to focus more on the entertainment sector where there is a strong potential of growth of the credit card business and we are also creating a niche segment like paying school fees through credit cards in India," said K L Muralidhara, vice-president and country manager of American Express.

Saying that the Indian card market is still young and relatively untapped and offers huge potential, Muralidhara said total billings on cards in the country which are estimated at over Rs 10,000 crore every year, will grow at over 20 per cent per annum in the next few years.

As banks are showing a more liberal attitude in issuing credit cards in India in recent times, 18 per cent of Indians surveyed by Amex believed that in the next six months they anticipate the number of plastic cards they hold to increase while 19 per cent of the card users in Thailand believed similar. Seventy-six per cent of credit card users in Australia said that the number of credit cards they hold will remain same while 18 per cent of the card holders in Australia believe that the number of cards they hold will decrease.