7 March 2005
New figures have revealed that there were 170 credit and debit card transactions every second during January.
The astonishing revelation represents an 11.7 per cent increase on figures from January last year according to industry body Apacs.
Separately, credit card transactions rose by 8.5 per cent on last year with debit card transactions growing by 13.4 per cent.
Holders of credit cards made 5.5 transactions each on average, spending £9.7 billion on their cards.
Debit cards also accounted for two thirds of plastic card transactions, with each debit cardholder making an average of 7.8 transactions over the month.
Sandra Quinn, director of corporate communications at Apacs, noted that a large proportion of the credit card spending was accounted for by the stirring response of Britons to the Asian tsunami disaster.
An estimated £100 million was contributed to the tsunami fund through cards, with in excess of 2.2 million payments made on debit and credit cards to political, social and religious organizations.
"The response from the British public to the Tsunami in South East Asia has been amazing," commented Ms Quinn.
"The disaster touched everyone in the UK and the country has responded by donating to charities in any way they can which has included donating using their plastic cards."
The average donation totalled £77.55 by credit card and £49.24 by debit card.
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