The last quarterly study of credit and debit cards, with a cut as of October 31st, 2018, made by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (MEIC) determined that, in nine years, the amount of credit cards in the country increased by 125%, from 1,326,754 cards in July 2010 to 2,984,769 in October 2018.
Only 1,008,247 of those cards are additional, that is, linked to another cardholder.
The lowest variation occurred in October 2011 (4.3% compared to October 2010). Afterwards, an increasing trend was observed in the number of cards, with October 2018 being the period with the highest year-on-year growth (13.5%).
On the other hand, the average annual growth of the number of cards was 9.4% during the period under analysis.
Regarding the characteristics of the credit card market, there are 30 issuers offering a total of 455 different types of cards (three more than the previous study).
The investigation determined that the balance of debt associated with the use of the cards is ¢1.4 trillion. As of last October, delinquencies less than 90 days were 8.80% and 4.12% for longer terms.
As for the annual interest rates in colones, which are charged to cardholders, they vary from 24% to 49%.