Credit Card Usage Growing

Use of credit cards increased in the month to Sept 22 by 27.12% to 380,388, according to data released by Shaparak Company, the state body in charge of supervising the national e-payment network.
The total number of active bank cards during the month also posted a growth of 2.7% from 118.8 million to 121.9 million cards, comprising largely of debit cards.
Debit cards still top the list of bank cards -- 95.28% or 116.2 million. Active bank cards registered 2.54% growth compared with the month before. Shaparak said 5.37 million gift cards were used at least once during the month, up 4.3% compared to the month before.
Credit cards are still not the norm in Iran and for long were limited to VIPs. But now that seems to be changing. The Central Bank of Iran policy of promoting credit cards as an instrument for microloans is influencing banks' decision to rethink.