1. INTRODUCTION:

A credit card is a plastic card that ensures card holders to buy goods and services anywhere at any time. There is no compulsion to make any immediate cash payments. It enables cashless shopping and relieves the customer to carry bundles of notes in a pocket or a bag. Technology has become dominant in different sectors of the economy. The best combination of technology and banking sector has made wonders on the platform of financial services. With variety of technology-driven services banks are maintaining customers’ base and attracting young and technically enthusiastic people to their branches.

The significance of credit cannot be ignored in the modern world. Therefore, banks provide credit facilities to the needy customers. Banks have logged on to E-Banking services and have attracted their customers with potential electronic communication devices. Credit cards are also one of the main instruments of information and communication technology and they have occupied the vital position in financial activities because, at any time customers can purchase goods by swiping a plastic card at any place. Off course latest technology has brought magical changes in the lifestyle of the people and entire world cannot live in the absence of this technology. Credit and debit cards are serving the needs of customers.

Plastic money today has attracted Indians in many ways. No need to hold handful of notes and coins in pockets for shopping, with the help of credit cards can purchase goods and services. In the year 2007-08 23.12 million credit cards were issued by Commercial Banks. Credit card distribution by banks increased up to 2009-10 during that period 24.70 million customers got benefited by this, but gradually people got aware that credit card usage makes man spendthrift and wasteful expenditure increases. Since two years banks are charging for holding credit cards and for the middle class section it would be a burden. Therefore, after 2009-10 credit card usage decreased to 18.33 million further it decreased to 18.04 in 2011-12. But recent information shows that in May 2017, a total of 30.86 million credit cards were issued to bank customers, according to the Reserve Bank of India. Between May 2016 and May 2017, 0.48 million credit cards were added.

2. OBJECTIVES:

The present study is based on the following objectives. They are as follows

1. To know the awareness of customers about credit cards.

2. To analyse the perception of card holders towards credit cards.

3. METHODOLOGY:

The present study covers both primary and secondary data. Simple random sampling method has been used. To collect primary data, structured questionnaire was prepared and distributed to the same to the selected respondents of Mandya city. Secondary data was collected from various books, journals, magazines and websites. The sample size was 150 and collected data was analysed with frequency, percentage method and graphical representation.

4. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION:

Table-4.1-Demographic Profile of Respondents

SL.No	Profile	Category	Frequency	In Percentage
1	Gender	Male	85	56.7
		Female	65	43.3
		Total	150	100
2	Age	25-35	35	23.3
		35-45	70	46.7
		45-55	25	16.7
		55 and above	20	13.3
		Total	150	100
3	Education	Post Graduates	42	28
		Graduates	79	52.7
		PUC	18	12
		SSLC Passed	11	7.3
		Total	150	100
4	Job Type	Government Employees	60	40
		Business Men and Women	35	23.3
		Bank Employees	30	20
		Technical professionals and Doctors	25	16.7
		Total	150	100

Source: Field Survey Data

The present study has taken 150 respondents from Mandya city to analyse the perception of customers about credit card services offered by selected banks. As per the figure shown above male respondents account for 56.7 and those females is 43.3percent. From age point of view 23.3 percent of customers belong to below 25-35years of age group, 46.7 percent belong to 35-45 years of age group, 45-55 years of age group constitutes 16.7 percent and 13.3 percent of customers come from the age group of 55 and above. 40 percent of respondents are government employees, 23.3 percent of respondents are business men and women, 20 percent are bank employees, 16.7 percent are technical professions and Doctors. From an education point of view 28 percent of customers are post graduates, while 52.7 percent are graduates and 12 percent belong to PUC passed and 7.3 percent are SSLC passed.

Table-4.2 Selected Banks for the Study

Sl. NoNo	Category of Banks Banks
1	ICICI
2	HDFC
3	AXIS
4	SBI

Source: Field Work

The Sample for this study is limited to Mandya city of Karnataka State, India. Only four banks of Mandya city have been selected for the study. These banks are providing credit card facilities to the customers.

Table-4.3 Credit Card Holders of Selected Banks.

Sl. No	Name of Banks	No. of ustomers	In Percentage
1	ICICI	45	30
2	HDFC	52	34.7
3	AXIS	12	8
4	SBI	41	27.3
5	Total	150	100

Source: Field Work

150 respondents have their credit cards of different banks. It is clear from the above table that majority of respondents are using the credit cards of HDFC.

Table-4.4 Purpose of Using Credit Cards by Respondents

Mode Of Transactions	Frequency	In Percentage
Online Shopping	110	73.3
Direct Shopping	40	2.7
Total	150	100

Source: Field Work

Out of 150 respondents 110 respondents use credit cards for online shopping and only 40 respondents use it for direct shopping in malls and shops. Therefore the study shows that respondents prefer credit cards for E-marketing process.

Table-4.5 Satisfaction Level of Respondents.

Satisfaction Level	Frequency	In Percentage
Very Satisfied	35	23.3
Satisfied	40	26.7
Cont Say	25	16.7
Dissatisfied	50	33.3
Total	150	100

Source: Field Work

Satisfaction Level of Respondents:

From the above table and diagram it is clear that 23.3 percent of total respondents are very much satisfied with credit card transaction. 26.7 percent of them are just satisfied and 16.7 percent of respondents did not express anything about this question. 33.3 percent of them are not satisfied due to the problems created by hackers.

5. LIMITATIONS:

· Due to time constraints and resources only 150 respondents have been selected.

· This study is confined only to Mandya district there fore, findings of the study cannot be generalized to all places.

6. SUMMARY, FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS:

Findings:

· It is found that majority of respondents belong to male group.

· 16.7 percent of respondents are not satisfied with this credit card transactions because of its drawbacks.

· 73.3 percent of respondents use credit cards for online shopping and it shows that online marketing has attracted customers to use credit cards.

Suggestions:

There is a need to consider various issues relating to credit card usages. Suggestions have been given as follows

· Customer Awareness programmes should be conducted by all banks pertaining to credit card usage.

· Government should consider hacking of credit cards as cyber crime and its legal issues seriously.

· Usually Hackers create their own websites and they make them to resemble to original banks’ website. To trap customers they send email randomly to unknown customers and convince them to give their personal information and account number. Therefore, customers should not give credit card information.

· In shopping malls shopkeepers may apply wireless skimmers to gather the card information of customers. Without the notice of others, these fraudsters insert a skimming device to the slot of POS machine when customer’s card inserted his information easily gets stored on the skimmer therefore, customers should do credit card transactions only with traders.

The study has analysed the perception and awareness of customers towards credit card services in the Study area i.e., Mandya city. Credit cards certainly empower customers to spend the money on products/services wherever they want but, there is an urgent need from banks to provide caution and awareness regarding the frauds, hacking, theft and other fraudulent transactions to their customers to avoid them being the victims for uninterrupted provision of technology services.

7. REFERENCES:

1. Arunajatesan. S and Radhakrishnan (2009), “Bank Management”, Margham Publications, Chennai 600017, PP 3.10-3. 24.

2. Balaji .S (1999), “Services Marketing and Management”, S.Chand and Co Ltd. (An ISO 9001: 2000 Company), New Delhi-110002, PP.85-92

3. Bhalla V.K. (2005), “Management of Financial Services 2005”, an Mol Publications Pvt, Ltd., New Delhi–110002, PP 30-38.

4. Bhattacharya Hrishkikes (1998), “Banking Strategy, Credit Appraisal and Lending Decisions”, Oxford University Press, New Delhi-110017, PP 121-135.

5. Collier, D. A (1994), “The Service/Quality Solution”, Irwin Professional Publishers, Distributors by IBD, New Delhi-110007, PP 166-175.

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7. Foster (2007), “101 ways to Boost Customer Satisfaction–2007” KOGAN Page Ltd., New Delhi-110015, PP 15-22.

8. Gordan.E and Natarajan. K (2003), “Banking Theory, Law and Practice”, Himalaya Publishing House, Mumbai-400004, PP.19.1-21.6.

9. Gupta, S.L. “Marketing Sense”, SandS Publications, New Delhi-110010, PP 123-131.

10. Gurusamy S (2004), “Financial Servicecs and Markets”, Thomson Asia Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi-110014, PP.55-67.

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12. Kapoor V.K. (1983), “Banking Services”, Himalaya Publishing, New Delhi-110002, PP 34-46.

13. Khan. M.Y (2004) “Financial Services”, Tata Mc Graw–Hill Publishing Co. Ltd, New Delhi110002, PP 45-62.

Received on 25.03.2018 Modified on 20.03.2018

Asian Journal of Management. 2018; 9(3):1123-1125.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5763.2018.00179.8