Correspondence: Alhassan G. Abdul-Muhmin, Department of Management & Marketing, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Saudi Arabia. Tel: +966 3 860 4265; Fax: +966 3 860 2544; e-mail: alhassan@kfupm.edu.sa

¹is an associate professor of marketing at the College of Industrial Management, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He has extensive teaching, research and consulting experience in Saudi Arabia and Norway. Prior to joining KFUPM, he worked as a teaching and research associate at the Institute of Marketing of the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Bergen, Norway, where he obtained both his Masters and PhD degrees. He regularly teaches marketing research, consumer behaviour and marketing management to undergraduate MBA and EMBA students. His research interests are in consumer information processing, consumer adoption of electronic technologies, industrial buyer–seller relationships and customer relationship management. He has authored or co-authored articles in scholarly publications, including the Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Journal of Global Marketing, Journal of Education for Business, Business & Professional Ethics Journal, Journal of International Consumer Marketing, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, and International Journal of Bank Marketing. He has also presented papers at international scientific conferences, including the annual educators' conference of the American Marketing Association.

²is an assistant professor of finance at the College of Industrial Management, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He has a PhD from the Victoria University of Manchester, Manchester Business School, UK. He also has a master's degree (MBA) in business administration from Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA and a bachelor's degree (BSBA) in quantitative management from the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA. He has contributed articles to several scholarly journals of international repute, and has co-authored a book on managerial economics. His areas of research include corporate and international finance, entrepreneurial and small business finance, capital budgeting, firm valuation, capital resource allocation, emerging and developing stock markets, diversification and privatisation, as well as engineering and managerial economics.

Received 4 March 2007; Revised 4 March 2007.

Abstract

Because of the Islamic prohibition of interest, in Saudi Arabia, there has long been a debate about the acceptability of owning and using credit cards. Available industry statistics, however, suggest that card ownership and usage may be on the rise. In this study, we empirically examine the extent and nature of credit card ownership and usage in the country, and how these are impacted by consumer demographics and attitudes toward debt. Using data from a structured survey, we find inter alia that credit card penetration in the country is relatively low, female Saudis are more likely than males to own the cards, card usage tends to be selective, attitude toward debt is a significant determinant of card ownership but not usage behaviour, and evaluation of card attributes is fairly positive among cardholders. Theoretical, managerial, and public policy implications of the findings are discussed.