UPI now dominates Indian merchant payments, significantly reducing card usage (AI image)How big has UPI actually gottenWhere cards actually stand todayWhy debit cards got hit the hardestCredit cards are shrinking as a share — but not disappearingA market that's actually still shallowCards are quietly becoming part of UPISo does UPI make cards less useful? Of that, UPI's person-to-merchant (P2M) share hit a record 77.3%, up from 74.9% a year earlier.Credit cards, meanwhile, slipped to 17.7% of merchant payments, down from 19.8% the year before.Debit cards also fell, from 3.9% to 3.2%.That shift isn't new; it's just been building for years. Worldline's 2025 data shows debit card usage at physical stores fell nearly 8% year-on-year, even though more than a billion debit cards are still in circulation.The report describes it plainly. As a plastic object you carry in your wallet and swipe at a machine, UPI has already made cards close to unnecessary for daily spending in India. Debit cards especially now look like a product mostly kept alive by ATM withdrawals rather than shopping.Credit, as a financial product, is a different story.
