When it comes to credit card usage and outstanding credit card balances, the American consumer is undoubtedly still the plastic-swiping king. But it looks like consumers in Russia, Brazil, China, and Poland, among other places, are catching up.
The Moscow Times reports that Visa has thoroughly infiltrated Russia over the past decade: There are now 70 million Visa cards in the country, compared to a little under one million in June of 2000, when the credit card giant was brand new to Russian consumers. At a press conference celebrating Visa’s tenth anniversary in the country, the company’s chief executive for Russia said:
“In the early 2000s, the use of Visa cards was more of an exception than an everyday means of paying for goods and services. That has changed today… As Russians have become more accustomed to using Visa cards, payment for small items and services that are part of our everyday life is now common.”
By no small coincidence, Russia is one of several countries that have witnessed a significant rise in credit-card balances in recent years, according to a WSJ post:
In 2009, the year the global recession hit bottom, the aggregate credit-card balances of Chinese consumers rose 17.1% even as those of U.S. consumers fell 8.7%, according to a study by financial consultancy Lafferty Group. Brazilians increased their balances by 28.9%, part of a 9.2% rise throughout Latin America….
As of 2009, China, Brazil, India and Russia had a total combined credit-card balance of $143 billion, still a far cry from the U.S.’s $849 billion but getting into the same league.
Getting into the same league? Come on! Not long ago, consumers on the either side of the world couldn’t hold the jockstraps (or purses) of the average mall-dwelling, impulse-buying, credit-card-wielding American. Spending money we don’t have used to our thing exclusively. Copycats.
Related:
Why You Should Behave Less American and More German