Credit card usage abroad by Bangladeshis up 29.5pc in Apr

Usage of credit cards abroad by Bangladeshi nationals jumped by nearly 29.5 per cent while their domestic utilisation dropped by nearly 20 per cent in April 2025 over the previous month, according to the latest Bangladesh Bank (BB) data.

The central bank in a report attributed such fall in the domestic spending through credit cards to the post-Eid festival impact.

Transactions through the plastic money within Bangladesh dropped by 19.68 per cent to over Tk 30.16 billion in last April, down from Tk 37.55 billion in March.

In contrast, the spending through international credit cards outside the country reached Tk 4.67 billion in April this year, the central bank data revealed.

On the other hand, spending through foreign-issued cards within Bangladesh rose slightly by 2.31 per cent to over Tk 2.62 billion in the same months in comparison with the previous month.

Domestically, credit cards usage showed an overall upward trend during April, 2024 to April, 2025, according to the BB data.

Spending by foreign nationals through credit cards within Bangladesh saw a sharp decline between June and October, 2024 it increased further steadily in December, 2024 to February, 2025.

However, the utilisation of the plastic money by the foreign nationals saw a slight decrease in March, 2025 and further it increased in April, 2025.

According to the BB data, Bangladeshi cardholders conducted nearly 3.29 times higher transactions outside the country compared to that of foreign nationals within Bangladesh in this month.

Spending patterns of credit cards revealed that across showed that nearly 50 per cent of transactions through credit cards occurred in department stores.

Bangladeshi nationals primarily use their credit cards in the USA (14 per cent) while the USA cardholders accounted for the highest spending (42 per cent) among foreign nationals within Bangladesh.

A country-wise breakdown of cross-border transactions also revealed that the rest of the spending through credit cards spread across other countries namely Thailand with 10.07 per cent, Singapore 9.74 per cent, UK 9.26 per cent, Malaysia 9.19 per cent, India 6.62 per cent, Saudi Arabia 5.40 per cent, Netherlands 4.10 per cent, Canada 3.86 per cent, UAE 3.36 per cent, Australia 3.15 per cent, Ireland 2.67 per cent, and other countries 8.32 per cent.

The VISA cards emerged as the most popular choice for domestic, outward and inward transactions in April 2025, the BB Data revealed.

Credit cardholders primarily use their cards at department stores abroad, making up 31.63 per cent of transactions.

Among other significant categories, transactions in retail outlet services account for 18.07 per cent, drug and pharmacies 11.06 per cent, transportation 10.44 per cent, business services 7.64 per cent, clothing 6.69 per cent and other sectors 14.47 per cent.

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