BANGKOK, 11 May 2011 – Credit card usage in March dropped despite heavy promotions and campaigns launched by banks, reflecting the increasing liquidity and debt services, according to the Bank of Thailand (BoT).
As of the end of March 2011, the number of new credit card users continued to decrease. There were over 14.320 million credit cards in the system at the end of March, up by 72,538 cards from February 2011 or 0.51%.
The increasing number of credit cards was mostly from non-bank institutions. The number of non-bank credit cards in total as of March 2011 stood at over 7.167 million cards, up from February by 61,500 cards. Meanwhile, the increase of bank credit cards in March was recorded at 11,038 cards.
Although credit card spending in March remained continuous, the outstanding balance plummeted, which reflected stronger ability to repay debts among credit card users. Credit card spending in March amounted to 98.321 billion baht, up 8.104 billion baht from February.
Unpaid credit card loan stood at 194.698 billion baht, down by 3.41 billion baht from the figures in February of 197.941 billion baht. Non-performing loans, with payments in arrears for longer than three months, was 4.722 billion baht or 2.4% of the total credit card loans.
