Money News
APACS' (the UK payments association) latest publication 'The Way We Pay 2008: UK Plastic Cards' shows that in 2007, for the 7th year running, debit cards continued to dominate consumer card spending, accounting for 62% of the total plastic card spending during the year.
UK plastic card payments to UK merchants, retailers and service providers totalled £354 billion in 2007 - over three times the amount of ten years ago (£103 billion in 1997) and a 10% increase on the 2006 figure (£321 billion).
The £354 billion spent on plastic cards last year equated to 31% of total consumer spending in the UK, with the remaining £771 billion made up of cash, automated payments and cheques.
Debit cards were used to make 4.9 billion purchases in the UK, and by 2017 it's projected that there will be around nine billion debit card payments. Over the last decade debit card spending has increased five fold from £45 billion in 1997. This upward trend is expected to continue, by 2010 personal spending by debit card is expected to overtake personal spending by cash, and by 2017 it's expected to reach £469 billion.
Meanwhile, during 2007 credit and charge cards were used to make 1.9 billion purchases in the UK to a value of £133 billion - an increase of 6% per cent on 2006 figures. However, this rise in credit card spending didn't lead to any increase in borrowing as the amount of credit card credit outstanding fell by £1.1 billion during 2007.
30 June 2008 © Moneyextra.com
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