Both in absolute and relative figures, the use of credit cards in the United States continued to grow in 2021. The per capita use of credit cards, for example, is estimated to have reached a figure of nearly 186 transactions per person. Interestingly, this number is slightly below that of Canada. Credit cards remained the most popular in-store payment method in the U.S. since the coronavirus pandemic, but lost terrain to mobile wallets when it comes to the most used e-commerce payment methods available in the country.

Nearly four out of 10 global card transactions in 2023 took place with a Visa-branded card. Roughly *** billion purchase transactions worldwide involved Visa payment cards that year. That would equal approximately **** billion Visa transactions per day in 2023. Note that all figures provided are estimates on general-purpose cards. While the source does not add additional information on this term, it may include debit and credit cards both. Visa's official figures on credit cards alone claim the company processed ** billion transactions in 2022. How big are Visa credit cards on a country-by-country basis? Visa does not share credit card figures for individual countries. Instead, it only looks at the United States against the rest of the world. The U.S. was home to one out of 3 of all Visa credit cards issued worldwide in late 2022. Website trackers hope to add more information on the market size of individual payment providers between different countries. The number of U.S. websites offering Visa as a payment method was far higher than those from other countries in 2022. Where is Mastercard bigger than Visa? Visa was not automatically the largest card provider in every country. Mastercard and Visa had varying market shares across ** European countries in 2021. Mastercard held market shares of ** percent and ** percent in the Netherlands and Sweden, respectively. Mastercard was also bigger than Visa in Brazil, making up nearly half of all card payments in the Latin American country. Visa and Mastercard combined take up the majority of transactions within most individual countries. They rarely face competition from domestic card schemes.

The market size for credit cards in the United States grew by over six percent between 2022 and 2023, a continuation of previous years. This according to estimates from on the value of transactions conducted with cards with a credit function. Credit cards are the most popular payment method available in the country for several years in a row, with a market share that slightly increased during the first year of COVID-19. The United States' credit card penetration is forecast to reach more than 65 percent come 2025.

Visa's number of transactions for their credit cards were used only slightly more often at the end of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021. Although the absolute number of payment transactions kept increasing, the number of payments per account remained relatively unchanged. In Q1 2023, Visa credit cards are used in roughly 22 billion transactions. It is believed that credit cards have increasingly become popular to counter cost of living in countries like the United States. Note that the figures shown here are different from transaction number estimates on global general purpose cards as this ranking only shows credit card numbers.

The market size of credit card payments in France was relatively unaffected in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, the payment method made up roughly 12 transactions when compared to the country's population that year. This was significantly higher than the credit card use per capita in Germany during the same time. France boasts a relatively high number of credit cards in circulation - making up roughly 45 percent of all payment cards within the country.

The market size of credit card payments in Brazil was relatively unaffected in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic but grew sizably in 2021. In 2021, the payment method made up roughly ** transactions when compared to the country's population that year. Credit cards made significant strides in the South American country, with the market share of credit cards overtaking that of cash by 2021. Credit cards and debit cards combined made up more than **** of all in-store payments in the Latin American country in 2021, although there was only a slight increase in their use since the coronavirus pandemic.

Credit card payments in India declined by nearly 200 million transactions in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic but recovered substantially since then. In 2022, the payment method made up roughly 2.6 transactions when compared to the country's population that year. Credit cards did not rank as India's most used payment method in POS - although its market share did increase between 2020 and 2021. Indian consumers generally prefer the use of cash, although especially mobile wallets are predicted to gain millions of new users within the Asian country.

Credit card payments in Switzerland increased in 2022, as consumers now made 92 transactions per capita. In absolute numbers, this translates to an increase of 100 million transactions between 2021 and 2022. In relative figures, however, Switzerland uses credit cards more often than consumers in the United Kingdom. Credit cards did not rank as the country's most used payment method - be it offline or online - but did have a sizable market share in 2020 of 25 percent.

The number of credit card payments in Australia increased by roughly 380 million between 2021 and 2022. This led to the per capita count to increase to over 159 in 2022. This figure is significantly higher than what is seen in most European countries. Annual credit card transactions per capita in the UK, for example, reached 51 in 2020 - which was already higher than what was seen elsewhere in Europe. Cards are a relatively dominant payment method in Australia's in-store payments, as credit cards and debit cards together reached a market share of more than 75 percent in 2021.

The number of times a person in Hong Kong used a credit card for payments increased by roughly one percent between 2022 and 2023. This brought the per capita use of credit cards to a figure over 143, a number several times that of the United Kingdom. Credit cards take up more than half of the in-store payment market in Hong Kong, due to the availability of a diverse selection of credit card schemes - including UnionPay, American Express, Mastercard, and VISA.

Credit card payments in Croatia grew by 200,000 transactions in 2020, although per capita use was still below one. Nevertheless, the increasing use of credit cards in the country is in stark contrast to developments elsewhere. The credit card transactions per capita in Bulgaria, for example, declined during this time - presumably as consumers did not want to build up credit card debt during COVID-19 lockdown. Consequently, the use of cash in Croatia declined - although estimates state coins and banknotes still made up more than half of all POS transactions.

Both in absolute and relative figures, the use of debit cards in the United States continued to grow in the first year of COVID-19. The per capita use of debit cards, for example, is estimated to have reached a figure of nearly 335 transactions per person in 2021. Debit cards remained a popular in-store payment method in the U.S. since the coronavirus pandemic, but was not as popular as credit cards.

Mastercard's number of transactions for their credit cards increased by *********** between the second quarter of 2025 and the second quarter of 2024. In Q2 2024, Mastercard credit cards are used in roughly ****** billion transactions. This is roughly ************ transactions less when compared to the number of Visa credit card payments.

Credit card payments in Mexico declined by nearly 70 million in 2020 but recovered significantly in 2021. This led to the per capita count to increase to 12.9 in 2021. The trend of declining credit card payments is similar to what was seen elsewhere in Europe. In the United Kingdom, for example, UK consumers started to pay off credit card debt during lockdown. Cash is Mexico's most used payment method in POS since COVID-19, although the market share of credit cards did increase since 2020.

Credit card purchases in the United States averaged roughly 97 dollars per transaction in 2023 - a value that was higher than in previous years. This is according to estimates based on the overall value of credit card transactions against the number of transactions within the country. These numbers have only been reported on an annual basis. Notable for the U.S. is that the transaction size has been growing consistently since 2016 - although by small margins.

Saudi consumers performed roughly 14 credit card payments per capita in 2022, a big increase from 2021. This is according to estimates based off credit card figures from the country's central bank. No information is provided why precisely this number went up during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. The market share of credit cards in Saudi Arabia POS sales did go up between 2020 and 2021, but was far lower than that of cash. Cards were more commonly used for online payments, however.

The number of times a person in Italy used a credit card for payments increased by about 20 percent between 2020 and 2021. This figure has been growing consistently throughout the years, which is unlike other countries in Europe. Indeed, the use of credit cards seems to stem from a growing market share in POS payments rather than Italian e-commerce payments - where wallets are popular.

Credit card payments in Colombia increased by over 27 percent in 2022 when compared to the previous year. This led to the per capita count - among consumers 15 years and up - to increase to 8.7 in the same year. The trend of increasing credit card payments is similar to trends in Latin America. The per capita credit card transaction count in Mexico, for example, increased to over 12 in 2021.

The number of times a Lithuanian person used a credit card for payments declined by *** million transactions between 2019 and 2020. Consequently, the use of credit cards was relatively low when compared to other countries in Europe. Credit card use per capita in Latvia, for instance, reached a value of ** that year. The total value of credit card payments in Slovakia also declined somewhat between 2019 and 2020, now making up roughly **** billion euros.

The total number of credit card transactions made in Germany from 2012 to 2020 generally increased during the period observed. In 2012, the number of credit card payments amounted to **** million. By 2019, this had reached a peak of ***** million credit card payments, after which it slightly declined to ***** million credit card payments in 2020. In 2019, every other person in Germany owned a credit card (**** credit cards per capita).