Debit and Credit cards will last forever but not in the way you think. They will exist virtually. Samsung has Samsung Pay, Apple has Apple Pay and Google has one too. In this way your credit cards and debit cards will be converted into digital formats and used at places where they accept NFC based payments.

When it comes to India, Debit cum ATM cards will exist for a long time to come as they are use to withdraw cash from ATMs. Sure there are ways to withdraw money without using your card and using any bank supported app based service but nothing comes close to the convenience of withdrawing cash using an Debit cum ATM card. This ATM card also acts as your debit card where you can make purchases at retail outlets.

Sure, digital wallets are catching up with ease of access like scanning of QR code and payment but when the receiver sends the money back to his bank account he/she as to incur some charge. In a system where everybody accepts digital wallet cash it would have been perfectly suitable but in India it has not caught on.

Credit cards are only in use because of the benefits they provide, whether its movie tickets or cash back and credit card bill payment is another headache which more and more people are trying to avoid.

Credit cards and debit cards will die the day that we will be able to withdraw money using our PayTm account. PayTm has its advantages. Transactions are a lot easier because we can do it with one click. Friction is the term used to describe the clicks we have to make to purchase an item or service. The lesser the friction, the better the chance of converting the final purchase. In this case, there is more friction with a credit card and debit card compared to a PayTm transaction. In terms of friction, PayTm has the advantage. In terms of ability to withdraw hard cash, credit and debit cards have the advantage. The day the whole world functions on PayTm and other such digital currencies, that will be the end of cards because then there will be no need of hard cash.

I still use debit card to pay at lot of shops and while online shopping as well.
The advantage that I see with PayTM/Tej or any of the apps is as mentioned above its direct a click of a button instead of typing in 16 digits and lot of stuff.
I saved my Debit card information on Amazon, so i just type in few numbers and OTP and i am done.
But I ddint save it on other portals so i pay all those bills using Tej..

Sandra James

In terms of friction, PayTm has the advantage.

The new directive from the Government that KYC is necessary for the digital wallets is going big way against these wallets. I'm not sure why's government doing it, because it's likely to prevent people from ditching cards in favor of wallets.

Btw, PayPal has began accepting payments within India. Stripe has also made its way to India. The fight for digital payments has become more interesting; but there's no noise about it in the market. 😀

Kaustubh Katdare

I'm not sure why's government doing it, because it's likely to prevent people from ditching cards in favor of wallets.

Because they want information over all digital transaction. Wallet is another form of digital bank.
As for original question,
Debit Card: Yes, it's dying. I never pull out debit card except at ATM. It will more of a proxy of account number. It's is getting replaced by UPI.

Credit Card: It's depends on Bank, till credit cards benefits them. Till date I have never paid extra paisa for credit card. On the contrary I got load of cash back and offers.