Debit cards use growing steadily

KATHMANDU, Nov 13: Use of debit cards has shown a phenomenal rise over the past few years, as more consumers prefer the convenience of plastic money over hard cash.



Awareness on benefits of using plastic money is increasing among public and consequently banks are experiencing a healthy rise in the number of card issuance and usage.[break]



One big factor behind the explosive popularity of debit cards is that people do not want to get associated with the risk of carrying hard cash due to rising insecurity in the country. The healthy rise in issuance of cards by commercial banks speaks volumes about the increasing trend of using cards as a substitute for hard cash.



Niraj Sharma, head of card department at Nabil Bank, said more people are using cards at restaurants and shopping centers. “Most of the cards users are financially independent people. Normally people aged between 25 and 30 have emerged as active users of cards,” added Sharma.



According to rough estimate, commercial banks have so far issued more than 2.5 million debit cards. Himalayan Bank has issued 477,029 debit cards, while Nepal Investment Bank and Nabil Bank have issued 451,914 and 435,800 cards respectively.   



Thanks to the handiness offered by plastic money, people have now started carrying less cash with them. Ram Keshari Shrestha, an active card user, said she hardly carries cash and most of the times use her card for purchasing products.



“Most of the people don´t prefer to carry hard cash due to security reasons. It is because of this fact that we are observing growth in the use of bank cards,” said Bishnu KC of Bhat-Bhateni Department Store. KC further added that he has been seeing 15 to 20 percent growth in the number of people transacting through bank cards. “The number of people using debit cards for groceries is growing at a high rate.”



Almost half of the total daily transaction at Bhat-Bhateni Department Store is done through debit card, according to KC.



Shiv Basnet of Bluebird Mart and Shopping Centre echoed KC. “About 60 percent of our total transactions is done through debit cards,” KC said. He further added that debit cards are becoming a perfect substitution for hard cash because of low levels of risk involved.

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