India's credit card spending falls for first time since 2021
What's the story
Credit card spending in India fell by 5.9% year-on-year (YoY) to ₹2.04 lakh crore in September 2026. This is the first annual decline since February 2021, a report by CareEdge Ratings showed. However, the dip doesn't necessarily indicate a widespread decrease in consumer spending, as last year's high festive-season base and timing of festive sales influenced this comparison.
Sales shift
Last year's festive boost led to higher MoM surge
In September 2025, credit card spending had surged by 13.3% month-on-month (MoM), following GST rate cuts and the start of festive online sales in the last week.
However, this year, festive sales began in October, pushing some spending into the next month.
The period from August to September 2026 saw a marginal 0.4% decline in spending compared to last year, indicating that September's dip was largely due to this shift in festive purchases.
Spending trends
Transaction volumes up, average spends down
September also saw a stark contrast between transaction volumes and average spends per transaction.
Credit card transactions rose by 23.2% YoY to 61 crore, while the number of outstanding credit cards grew by 10.5% to 12.53 crore, CareEdge Ratings said.
However, average spend per card fell by 14.8% to ₹16,305, and average transaction value declined by 23.6% to ₹3,343 during this period.
Spending shift
Online vs offline spending trends
The spending pattern also indicates a shift in the distribution of credit card transactions between online and offline channels.
Online credit card spending fell by 12.5% YoY to ₹1.26 lakh crore in September while point-of-sale (PoS) spending at physical merchant outlets rose by 7.2% to ₹77,751 crore, according to CareEdge Ratings.
This means that online transactions now account for 61.7% of total credit card spending, down 469 basis points from September 2025.
Market share
Private banks dominate spending
Private sector banks dominated credit card spending in September, accounting for 73.78% of the total. This was an increase of 44 basis points from August.
Among major issuers, HDFC Bank was the only one to report annual growth in spending at 7.7% YoY.
Its share of industry spending also rose by 165 basis points sequentially to around 32%, according to ACMIIL's estimates.
Spending drop
Public sector banks show mixed results
On the other hand, ICICI Bank's spending fell by 26.3% YoY while SBI and Axis Bank also witnessed declines of 14.1% and 11.1%, respectively, according to ACMIIL's estimates.
CareEdge Ratings also noted that other public sector banks' spending (excluding SBI) rose by 26.3% YoY with their share of industry spending rising to 3.30% in September from last year's figure of 2.46%.