Plastic spending increases
Published On 24 August 2007
People in the UK made more and more purchases on their debit and credit cards in the second quarter of the year, new figures show.Data released by the UK's payment association, Apacs, shows that Brits used debit and credit cards to make 1.7 billion purchases in total during the three month period.
These purchases were worth a total of £87.2 billion - 10.9 per cent more than in the second quarter of 2006.
Over the second quarter of 2007, consumers made 714 million withdrawals from cash machines with their debit and credit cards, worth a total of £46.3 billion.
A statement from Apacs added: "Debit cards accounted for 71.7 per cent of all plastic card purchases compared with 69.6 per cent in the second quarter of 2006."
Figures from the British Bankers' Association (BBA) recently showed that underlying credit card borrowing fell by £100 million in July.
The BBA's director of statistics, David Dooks, commented: "Consumers' borrowing on cards again fell and personal loan and overdraft demand remained subdued because household finances have tightened."
