Debit and credit card spending 'trebles in ten years'
Published On 4 July 2007
New figures from payments association APACS show that £321 billion was spent on plastic cards such as credit cards in the UK last year.This represents a threefold increase in the last ten years, as debit and credit cards increasingly become the preferred method of payment.
The APACS report, entitled 'The Way We Pay 2007: UK Plastic Cards', found that debit cards accounted for 61 per cent of the total spent on plastic - £195 billion in 2006, compared to £37 billion in 1996.
In terms of credit cards, their total spend increased from £50 billion in 1996 to £126 billion last year.
Plastic card spending now makes up almost a third of consumer spending in the UK. The rest is composed of cash, automated payments and cheques.
Sandra Quinn of APACS said: "The last ten years have seen a rapid rise in the popularity of plastic, with debit cards showing particularly strong growth.
"Consumers enjoy the ease and convenience plastic cards bring, and today most retailers and supermarkets take plastic, as do an increasing number of professional service providers.
"Over the next ten years it is expected that spending on plastic cards will continue to dominate the payments arena, accounting for 89 per cent of growth in UK payment volumes by 2016."
