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Over a half of all Poles do not use a credit card
Even though a credit card has been present on the Polish market for nearly 20 years, still only less than 40 percent of us have it in the wallets. Over 80 percent of the Poles think that the card is a convenient payment means; however, many still fear that they cannot use it in a proper way, says a report by Biuro Informacji Kredytowej and the Leopold Kronenberg Foundation at Citi Handlowy.
Since the beginning of 2010, we have seen a downward trend when it comes to the number of credit cards in Poland. In that period, i.e. since December 2009, the number of credit cards has dwindled from 10.9 million to 6.1 million, which means that in total, 4.7 million credit cards have vanished from the market. That is a result of a process carried out by banks consisting in cleaning their portfolios from inactive cards. At the same time, the Polish market displays huge potential in the scope of that payment instrument, which is estimated at 12 million cards, says Marcin Domagała, Head of Product Offer Management and Development Unit at Citi Handlowy. That is proven by surveys, which indicate that merely 16 percent of the respondents declare that they do not need a card, adds Mr. Domagała.
According to surveys conducted by Millward Brown and commissioned by Biuro Informacji Kredytowej and the Leopold Kronenberg Foundation at Citi Handlowy, only 37 percent of Poles declare that they hold a credit card. And who has got one in their wallet? Two in five men and one in three women, aged between 35 and 44, mainly with higher educational background (51 percent).
The most frequent reason why we do not hold a credit card is anxiety related to high costs and loosing control over one's expenditures. One third of us fear hidden costs (33 percent) and high interest (31 percent). And one fourth associate holding a card with a threat of falling into a debt spiral. Their fear is the same when it comes to theft of funds from the card or loss of the card itself.
Only 2 percent of Poles claim that they do not know the principles of functioning of that product. They also see the benefits of its usage. The main ones include convenient payment (84 percent), easy access to additional funds (64 percent) and flexible funds management (52 percent).
The survey indicates that only 15 percent of those surveyed would take a decision to have a card issued at another bank than theirs, i.e. the bank keeping their personal account. And what would induce them to do that? Almost a half (as many as 44 percent) would get convinced by discounts or rebates. 37 percent of those surveyed would go for it if their card would be accepted worldwide.
The survey was carried out by Millward Brown and commissioned by Biuro Informacji Kredytowej and the Leopold Kronenberg Foundation at Citi Handlowy. The survey was based on Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews (CATI), and was conducted on the Polish nationwide representative sample of 1001 respondents aged 18+ between 8 and 12 March 2014. The selection criteria took into account: sex, age, education, size of locality and province.
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