Bangladeshi credit card usage highest in US, India drops to sixth place

The United States tops the list of spending from credit cards issued by Bangladeshi banks. India was on top the list previously, but it now dropped to sixth place in the list due to decrease in visa issuance.

Meanwhile, debit cards issued by Bangladeshi banks are most frequently used in China, while prepaid cards are most used in the United Kingdom. These figures are from April this year and cover only spending outside the country.

Bangladesh Bank has published its updated report for April this year on domestic and international transactions using credit cards. According to this report, 56 banks and one financial institution in Bangladesh provide credit card services to customers, and the data from these banks were used by the central bank’s statistics department to prepare this report.

The report highlights the usage of credit cards by Bangladeshi citizens abroad, by foreigners inside Bangladesh, and by Bangladeshis domestically. The data shows that Bangladeshis have slightly reduced their use of credit cards for travel and shopping abroad.

According to the central bank’s data, Bangladeshis spent Tk 4.68 billion abroad using credit cards in April this year. This amount is 29.49 per cent higher than the Tk 3.61 billion spent in March. However, on a year-on-year basis, spending in April this year was significantly lower. In April 2024, Bangladeshis had spent Tk 5.06 billion abroad using credit cards — Tk 380 million more than this year.

Regarding the decline in foreign credit card use, bank officials said that after the change of government, the bank accounts of politicians, businesspeople, and professionals associated with the Awami League have been frozen. As a result use of all types of cards by them has been halted. Even if funds are available in their bank accounts, they are unable to spend this money abroad. Additionally, securing visas for countries like India, Middle Eastern countries, Thailand, and Malaysia has become more difficult. This has impacted card transactions abroad.

In April this year, spending in India using Bangladeshi credit cards fell to only Tk 310 million — 68.37 per cent less compared to the same month last year, when Tk 980 million was spent in India.

Among credit card transactions abroad in April, the highest spending was in the United States — nearly Tk 660 billion. This was followed by Tk 470 million in Thailand, Tk 450 million in Singapore, and Tk 430 million each in the United Kingdom and Malaysia.

In April, Tk 3.10 billion was spent abroad using debit cards. Of this, Tk 640 million was spent in China, Tk 360 million in the United States, Tk 290 million in India, Tk 250 million in the United Kingdom, and Tk 240 million in Ireland.

A total of Tk 840 million was spent abroad using prepaid cards. This included Tk 180 million in the United Kingdom, Tk 100 million in the Netherlands, Tk 90 million each in the United States and India, and nearly Tk 70 million in Canada.