A Credit Card, as its name suggests, gives you credit, for a charge, of course, and allows you to pay for service or product over a period of time. The days of credit one gets could range from 20 to 50 days (calculated from the day of billing and not from date of purchase) come interest free. You can choose to pay your dues entirely at one go or stagger them after paying the minimum amount due every month. A Charge Card is almost similar to a Credit Card, but with one key difference. With Charge Card, you have to pay the entire dues within the credit period and also you cannot carry over any balances like a Credit Card. A Debit Card is on the whole, an ATM card on the move.It enables you to access your bank deposits for payment. When you make any purchases using a Debit Card, your bank account is instantaneously and automatically depleted to the extent of the purchase amount.

In India there are essentially three types of cards available, Visa, Master Card and Amex (American Express). Participating banks like Citibank or ICICI then issue these cards to the subscribers. Both Visa and Master Card have been popular in India and have an almost equal market share and as for Amex, it is comparatively a new player in India and also it issues its cards only through American Express Bank.