Overview
- TransUnion CIBIL, which released its analysis on Wednesday, July 8, 2026, found India has about 5.2 crore credit-card holders, roughly 25% of an estimated 25 crore credit-active population.
- The report says credit cards now account for just 8% of fresh card additions that are new-to-credit, down from 26% a year earlier, showing a sharp drop in cards’ role as an entry point to formal credit.
- Over the past decade outstanding card balances rose about 8.3 times to Rs 3.1 lakh crore, total cards grew to 10.7 crore and cardholders climbed 3.6 times to 5.2 crore even as live cards’ share in consumption loans fell from 56% to 38%.
- CIBIL reported improving short-to-medium delinquencies with 91–179 day overdue balances down to 1.7% year to March 2026 but warned that 180+ day delinquencies and “high exposure” borrowers have created pockets of stress since 2022.
- The company says future card growth depends on fixing platform limits such as UPI’s current non-support for Visa and Mastercard, easing merchant economics, and managing competition from UPI-based payments and small personal loans, which will affect lenders’ risk and customers’ borrowing choices.