Economy · Monthly · 2 min read · data through June 2026
Debit-card payments collapsed as people switched to scanning UPI. Credit cards kept climbing, and overtook debit in 2023.
A debit card and UPI are the same kind of thing: both move money straight out of your bank balance. So when UPI spread, it did not add a new way to pay so much as replace an old one. Debit-card payments are down about 74% from their level when UPI took off, as the swipe gave way to the scan.
A credit card is a different animal. It is not really a payment tool, it is a short-term loan, and UPI does not replace borrowing. So credit kept climbing while debit fell, and the two crossed in March 2023. Today Indians put about 2.7 times as much on credit cards as on debit.
74%debit-card payments down since UPI took off
March 2023when credit overtook debit
It is why lumping the two together as “cards” hides the real story. One card is fading because something does its job better; the other is thriving because nothing else does its job at all. Same piece of plastic, opposite fates.
Source: RBI payment system statistics, processed by Time Series of India. Explore the dashboard →