The number of credit cards in circulation has, however, declined by over 4.3 per cent to 1.76 crore as of September 30, 2011, the latest data from the Reserve Bank of India said.
Credit card transactions during the April-September period was worth Rs 45,372.06 crore, up 30 per cent from the comparable period of 2010-11.

Debit card transactions were up by 37.3 per cent in September to Rs 4,101.32 crore. There were over 25.19 crore debit cards in use as of September 30, 2011, up 23.6 per cent from the year-ago period. Transactions by debit card during April-September period were up 42.3 per cent to Rs 24,585.19 crore.

Experts said the jump in transaction points to greater use of the electronic payments system as people move away from old formats of payment, especially in major urban centres. In 2010-11, transactions through credit cards in the country went up by 22.15 per cent to touch Rs 75,515.68 crore in value terms. In addition, debit card transactions went up by 46.46 per cent last fiscal to Rs 38,691.88 crore.