Exploring the Barriers towards the Adoption of Credit Cards Usage in Pakistan

Abstract

Credit card is a widely used financial instrument in consumer financing, facilitating consumers to full fill their number of desires. The purpose of this research is to present an explanatory perception into the current and non-users of credit card. The aim is to recognize the diverse factors that becomes the basis of low adoption and usage rate of credit card among the Pakistani population. Moreover, this paper also aims to highlight the barriers responsible in the diminutive growth of a potential credit card market in Pakistan. This research is explanatory in nature wherein structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. Moreover, non-probability convenience sampling method was adopted as a sampling technique. Furthermore, structured questionnaire was adapted from the base study and distributed among 302 current and non-credit card users. The research indicates that, to create and tap a large market credit card financial institutions should focus on cost and improve the security of credit cards. Findings further reveals that religious belief has a huge impact towards the decline of credit card usage. Consumer bankers dealing with credit card proposition should focus on aggressive brand promotion which will end up in changing the consumer perception. Furthermore, cost/financial charges are highly correlated with the usage of credit card and thus barrier in credit card usage. Therefore, credit cards issuers should keep the stated factors in mind for easy penetration. This research will be instrumental for credit card issuers, advertising agencies responsible for developing the content of credit card communication and can be used in academics to understand this area from both micro and macro perspective.

Keywords: Credit Card, Adaptation, Consumer Finance.