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Brazil’s Debit Card Payments Fell in 2025. Credit Grew 10%
Brazilians made 16.39 billion debit card payments in 2025, slightly fewer than the 16.42 billion of 2024, according to central bank data. Credit card payments rose 10.0% to 22.0 billion, and debit’s share of card payments has fallen from 52.3% in 2019 to 35.4%.
Key takeaways 6
- Brazil’s debit card payments fell 0.1% to 16.39 billion in 2025, the first annual decline in the series since 2019.
- Debit card payments rose just 2.3% from 2023 to 2025, and their value fell from R$984 billion in 2022 to R$960 billion.
- Credit card payments rose 10.0% in 2025 to 22.0 billion, worth R$3.0 trillion, and grew 9.9% in the first half of 2026.
- Debit’s share of card payments fell from 52.3% in 2019 to 35.4% in 2025; credit is now the largest at 47.6%.
- Prepaid card payments rose from 304 million in 2019 to 7.88 billion in 2025, but grew only 2.4% last year.
- Values are nominal and the data do not show why debit flattened or how many people stopped using it.
Brazilians made 16.39 billion debit card payments in 2025, according to quarterly payment statistics from the Banco Central do Brasil. In 2024 they made 16.42 billion.
The fall is tiny, 0.1%. But it is the first annual decline in debit card payments since at least 2019, and it came in a year when credit card payments rose 10.0% to 22.0 billion.
Debit flattened two years ago
Debit card payments grew quickly after 2019, from 10.85 billion to 15.32 billion in 2022. Then growth stopped. Over the two years from 2023 to 2025 they rose just 2.3%.
In money terms the decline started earlier. Debit card payments were worth R$984 billion in 2022, R$976 billion in 2024 and R$960 billion in 2025.
The first half of 2026 shows no recovery. Debit card payments were 0.5% above the same period of 2025.
Credit and prepaid took the share
Credit card payments have grown every year since a dip in 2020. They reached 22.0 billion in 2025, worth R$3.0 trillion, and rose another 9.9% in the first half of 2026.
Prepaid cards grew fastest from a small base, from 304 million payments in 2019 to 7.88 billion in 2025. That growth has also slowed: 2.4% in 2025.
The result is a large shift in the mix. Debit cards accounted for 52.3% of card payments in 2019 and 35.4% in 2025. Credit cards are now the largest type, at 47.6%, and prepaid cards make up 17.0%.
Why this matters
For acquirers and merchants in Brazil, the card mix affects cost. Credit card payments are larger, averaging R$136 in 2025 against R$59 for debit and R$41 for prepaid, and they are where card volume is still growing.
Debit was the card type most exposed to Pix, which grew 19.3% in the first half of 2026 and handled 79.6 billion payments in 2025. The data do not show that Pix caused debit to flatten, but the two trends sit side by side.
What this is not
The figures count payments, not people. They cannot show how many Brazilians stopped using debit cards, or what they switched to.
Values are in nominal reais and are not adjusted for inflation, so the real fall in debit spending is larger than the nominal one.
The central bank does not give a reason for the flattening, and this article does not assign one. HaiPay did not contact the Banco Central do Brasil.
What to watch
Whether debit card payments fall again in 2026. The first half suggests another flat year.
Whether credit card growth holds near 10%. It has carried most of Brazil’s card growth for the past two years.
And whether prepaid cards resume growth or settle at about a sixth of card payments.
Data highlight
-0.1 %
Change in the number of debit card payments in Brazil from 2024 to 2025, to 16.39 billion, while credit card payments rose 10.0 per cent to 22.0 billion
2019 to 2025, with the first half of 2026
Read the methodology and limitations
Methodology and limitations
Compiled by HaiPay on 19 October 2026 from the Banco Central do Brasil payment means statistics, retrieved through the Olinda open data API as the quarterly series MeiosdePagamentosTrimestralDA in the service MPV_DadosAbertos. The series reports, for each quarter, the number of payments in thousands and their value in millions of reais by instrument, including credit card, debit card and prepaid card payments and Pix. The latest quarter in the data is the second quarter of 2026. Annual figures are sums of four quarters. Debit card payments numbered 10,848 million in 2019, 11,458 million in 2020, 13,522 million in 2021, 15,315 million in 2022, 16,018 million in 2023, 16,415 million in 2024 and 16,393 million in 2025, a change of minus 0.1 per cent from 2024 and the first annual decline in the series since 2019; over the two years from 2023 they rose 2.3 per cent. Their value was R$984 billion in 2022, R$976 billion in 2024 and R$960 billion in 2025, 2.4 per cent below 2022 in nominal terms. Credit card payments numbered 9,603 million in 2019 and 22,016 million in 2025, 10.0 per cent more than the 20,011 million of 2024, and their value rose 14.0 per cent in 2025 to R$3,001 billion. Prepaid card payments rose from 304 million in 2019 to 7,880 million in 2025, 25.9 times as many, and 2.4 per cent more than in 2024. As a share of the number of card payments across the three types, debit fell from 52.3 per cent in 2019 to 35.4 per cent in 2025, credit moved from 46.3 to 47.6 per cent and prepaid rose from 1.5 to 17.0 per cent. The average debit card payment was R$61 in 2019 and R$59 in 2025, against R$136 for credit and R$41 for prepaid in 2025. In the first half of 2026, debit card payments were 0.5 per cent above the first half of 2025, credit card payments 9.9 per cent and prepaid 0.7 per cent, while Pix payments rose 19.3 per cent; Pix handled 79,647 million payments in 2025. Every annual total, share, change and average is HaiPay’s arithmetic on the published quarterly values. Three limits apply. Values are nominal and not adjusted for inflation. The series does not say why debit use has flattened, so this article does not attribute it to Pix or any other cause. And the series counts payments, not cardholders, so it cannot show how many people stopped using debit cards. HaiPay did not contact the Banco Central do Brasil.
Data note
HaiPay calculation from the Banco Central do Brasil payment means statistics (Olinda API, MPV_DadosAbertos, MeiosdePagamentosTrimestralDA), quarterly data from Q1 2019 to Q2 2026, retrieved 19 October 2026. Annual figures sum four quarters. Debit card payments were 16,415 million in 2024 and 16,393 million in 2025, a 0.1 per cent fall and the first annual decline in the series; their value fell from R$984 billion in 2022 to R$960 billion in 2025. Credit card payments rose 10.0 per cent in 2025 to 22,016 million.
Debit’s share of card payments fell from 52.3 per cent in 2019 to 35.4 per cent in 2025. Values are nominal. The data do not show why debit use flattened.
Data and research materials
- Brazil card and Pix payments, quarterly, Q1 2019 to Q2 2026 (Banco Central do Brasil) ↓CSV · 3 KB
- Credit, debit and prepaid card payments, annual totals and shares, 2019-2025 (HaiPay calculations) ↓CSV · 1 KB
HaiPay’s charts and the two CSV tables on this page may be reused with attribution to HaiPay and a link to this article. The underlying statistics are published by the Banco Central do Brasil; reuse of the source data is governed by the central bank’s terms, not by HaiPay.
Term definition
- Debit card payment
- A card payment drawn directly from the cardholder’s bank account. Brazilians made 16.39 billion in 2025, averaging R$59 each.
- Prepaid card payment
- A payment with a card loaded with funds in advance rather than linked to a credit line or a current account. Brazil recorded 7.88 billion in 2025.
- Card mix
- The share of card payments made by credit, debit and prepaid cards. In Brazil debit fell from 52.3 per cent of card payments in 2019 to 35.4 per cent in 2025.
3 sources
- Banco Central do Brasil
Payment means statistics, quarterly (MeiosdePagamentosTrimestralDA), Olinda open data API
Quarterly number and value of credit, debit and prepaid card payments and Pix payments from Q1 2019 to Q2 2026. Source of every figure in this article.
Accessed 19 October 2026 · UTC
- Banco Central do Brasil
Estatisticas de Meios de Pagamentos, open data catalogue entry
Catalogue entry describing the payment means datasets and their resources.
Accessed 19 October 2026 · UTC
- Banco Central do Brasil
The central bank’s page for its payment means statistics, for readers who want the published tables.
Accessed 19 October 2026 · UTC
How to cite
HaiPay News, "Brazil’s Debit Card Payments Fell in 2025. Credit Grew 10%", https://www.haipay.net/news/brazil-debit-card-payments-stalled-2025, 19 October 2026
