(Archive)
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(CRHoy.com) The number of credit cards that circulated in the country during the month of October, decreased by 237,426 plastics; this if it is compared with the data of previous July. This is confirmed by the latest quarterly study of credit and debit cards carried out by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (MEIC).
If the comparison is made with October 2019, in one year 380 thousand plastics were closed.
According to the study, just over 2.5 million credit cards circulated in the market in October. This data is less than the 2.8 million that citizens had in their hands in July 2020 and the 2.94 million that circulated in October 2019.
The reduction in the amount of plastics is reflected four months after the reform of the Law for the Promotion of Competition and Effective Defense of the Consumer, known as the Law against usury, came into force.
The reduction represents 8.47% of the total and 1.8 million card holders are currently in circulation and 770,317 correspond to additional cards.
There are currently 32 credit card issuers from private banks, public banks, cooperatives and private companies operating in the country, and 429 types of cards were registered. Despite the reduction in credit cards, the debt balance increased by ₡ 47 million, for a total of ₡ 1.3 billion.
Comparing October 2019 with October 2020, the interannual balance decreased by more than ₡ 128 million, however, from July to October of this year; increased by more ₡ 47 million, representing a total of ₡ 1.3 trillion, where the average debt balance per card in circulation is ₡ 442 808.87.
Regarding the year-on-year behavior delinquencies from 1 to 90 days increased by 0.70%, while, after more than 90 days, it decreased by 0.88%.
Results on debit cards
Regarding debit cards, in the market there are 5,968,020 cards in circulation, where 5,780,411 are card holders and 187,609 are additional cards.
According to the inter-annual comparison, there has been an increase of 57,701 plastics which corresponds to 0.98%, while, compared to the previous July study, the increase corresponds to 112,801 new plastics, that is, 1.93%.
28 financial entities are registered, offering a total of 333 debit cards, (8 less than in the previous study), of which 131 are in dollars and two in euros. Likewise, 314 of these accounts are managed by debit cards with international coverage and 19 with local coverage.
Regarding the accumulated balance in colones of accounts associated with debit cards, it corresponds to ₡ 5 billion, which reflects an increase of more than ₡ 994 million, that is, 24.70%; while the quarterly behavior with respect to July was an increase of over ₡ 255 million, reflecting an increase of 5.37%.
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