Debit Card Growth Outstrips Other Plastics

by Gill Montia

Story link: Debit Card Growth Outstrips Other Plastics

APACS, the UK trade association for institutions that provide payment services, has reported that UK consumers spent a record amount on their payment cards during 2006.

In total, purchases amounting to £321 billion were made using debit, credit and store cards during the year, representing a three-fold increase over the past 10 years.

Debit cards were increasingly in use, with a 14% rise in spending coming well ahead of the increase in spending on credit cards.

In the case of credit cards, growth was relatively small, with transactions rising in value to £126 billion. Cheques became evermore unpopular, with a 12% decrease in their use, and transactions down to £164 billion in value.

Cards first overtook the use of cash in terms of overall retail spending in 2005 and last year there was a widening of the gap between the two, with just £274 billion being spent in cash.

The various types of card accounted for almost one third of all consumer spending in 2006 and APACS expects the growth trends to continue during the next decade.