Rupay card usage via PoS machines triples in November
In terms of the number of transactions, the use of the cards rose from 6.22 million in October to 18.16 million in November this year
Rupay cards have seen a surge both in terms of value and the number of transactions in November, according to data compiled by the National Payments Corp. of India. The increase is more at Point of Sale (PoS) machines than at e-commerce websites, indicating people’s preference to use the cards for necessities.
In terms of the number of transactions, the use of the cards tripled from 6.22 million in October to 18.16 million in November this year (at PoS machines). Transactions at online websites rose from from 5.58 million to 7.3 million over the same period.
“The number of physical transactions are anyways higher than digital ones," said Naveen Surya, managing director of digital payments start-up Itzcash Card Ltd, adding that more people making digital payments, who earlier did not use their credit/debit cards, is another reason for the overall increase in Rupay card usage.
With banks deploying PoS machines in places that were not covered, such as many petrol pumps and ration shops, people prefer to spend on their daily needs as compared to buying goods online from e-commerce websites.
“Many people have started using credit/debit cards out of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) now and with the waiving off of merchant discount rate (MDR) on debit card payments, there will be an added incentive now to use cards in general," said Krishnan Dharmarajan, executive director at Centre for Digital Financial Inclusion (CDFI).
In terms of value, PoS machines have an edge, showing a growth of over two times to Rs30.06 billion in November. The increase is also there for online websites but a smaller one—from 3.06 billion (October) to 4.97 billion (November).
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