In what could be an irony of sorts, at a time when India’s consumer confidence is going down the country’s credit card spend is showing an upward trend, zooming 42% in the last two years from Rs 4,462 to Rs 6,322 a month. The total spending on credit cards has soared 57% to Rs 12,380 crore in May this year from Rs 7,880 crore in the same month two years back. Blame it on the novel innovation called zero-interest EMI option, enabling retailers and merchant establishments to boost sale of consumer durables such as smartphones through monthly installments without any credit risk and the buyer getting the merchandise on credit without bearing any interest cost, say experts. Surprisingly, the rise in credit card usage has also seen rising awareness among users about maintaining a good credit record and a sharp drop in wilful defaults.