Only 22% of Russian credit card holders use them
4 June 2015 (12:41)
UrBC, Moscow, June 4, 2015. Only 22% of credit cards issued by banks to Russian citizens are actually used. At the same time, increasingly more credit card applications get denied, Izvestiya reports.
Based on United Credit History’s data, only 6.7m credit cards out of the 31.1m issued ones do get used by the cardholders.
Incidentally, the number of newly issued credit cards has been on the decrease recently. 181,800 cards were issued by banks in April 2015, which was 4.5 times less than in April 2014. The average loan limit has also shrunk from 47,000 RUR down to 40,000 RUR.
RAEX expert Anastassia Lichagina says credit cards are under-used since Russian borrowers do not see the point of getting a credit card as such. When they need money, they take out a loan in cash or a POS loan; credit cards are often offered by banks as a complementary product, for example, as part of a salary/debit card package or as a bonus to accompany a large, secured loan.
Based on United Credit History’s data, only 6.7m credit cards out of the 31.1m issued ones do get used by the cardholders.
Incidentally, the number of newly issued credit cards has been on the decrease recently. 181,800 cards were issued by banks in April 2015, which was 4.5 times less than in April 2014. The average loan limit has also shrunk from 47,000 RUR down to 40,000 RUR.
RAEX expert Anastassia Lichagina says credit cards are under-used since Russian borrowers do not see the point of getting a credit card as such. When they need money, they take out a loan in cash or a POS loan; credit cards are often offered by banks as a complementary product, for example, as part of a salary/debit card package or as a bonus to accompany a large, secured loan.
 | Embed to Blog |  | Subscribe to Newsletter |  |