Credit Card Choice and Usage Among Philippine Cardholders : Possible Marketing Ramifications

The Asia-Pacific region has been one of the fastest growing regions in terms of card usage, specifically debit and credit cards. With the increasing number of different kinds of credit cards, providers want to customize their services based on the consumers’ lifestyles. This study focuses on the choice and usage of credit cards as well as the identification of credit card attributes that are valued and important to Philippine credit card users relative to their socio-demographic characteristics. Results show that credit card owners give importance to the bank’s reputation of the credit card provider, the extra benefits and point/reward schemes offered by the cards, cards issued by the banks where the cardholders have existing accounts, personal recommendations and cards with higher credit limits for their initial credit card acquisition. In addition, they utilize their credit cards for convenience, to spread payment or avail of payment installments as well as for safety purposes.