Russians massively refuse to use bank cards

Then the number of cards in use fell by 4 million units, follows from the data of the Central Bank.

The total number of cards issued by banks also stagnated - in the period from April to June this year, their number increased by only 500 thousand.

Experts are confident that the reason for the reduction in the number of cards used by Russians is the introduction of restrictive measures in the economy against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic. First of all, we are talking about tightening the rules for issuing credit cards by banks.

Other factors analysts call market saturation with cards. On average, there are almost three cards for one able-bodied citizen. One of them, as a rule, is the main one, the others are “just in case”, says Oleg Lagutkin, the head of the Equifax credit history bureau.

Other experts point out that even without taking into account the crisis phenomena, one can notice a general trend towards a decrease in the number of cards used.

The National Rating Agency, writes RIA Novosti, expects some growth in the issue of cards in the third-fourth quarter of 2020 due to the removal of most restrictive measures and due to measures by the Central Bank to reduce the additional burden on capital for consumer lending for banks. But growth is unlikely to be significant, analysts say.

Let's remind that in June Russian banks announced that they intend to make the issue of plastic cards a paid service. They did not decide to do this in connection with the preservation of the acquiring commissions for online retail and medical institutions by the Central Bank at the level of 1%. Note that in the same month it was said that the withdrawal of funds from "plastic" was the most unpopular operation with bank cards.