24 August 2007
Britons' love affair with their credit and debit card continues, with UK consumers spending over £87.2 billion in the last three months, latest figures show.
UK consumers spent £87.2 billion on plastic cards in the second quarter with overall spending more than 10% higher than last year, spending statistics from UK payments association APACS reveal.
Overall, consumers made 1.7 billion plastic card transactions in the period between April and June this year.
Furthermore the number of purchases was 7% higher than the figure recorded for the same time last year.
Spending on debit cards accounted for nearly 72% of all plastic card transactions, up on the 69.6% recorded for this period last year.
Figures from the Bank of England show that gross credit card lending amounted to £31.3 billion for the same period.
"The sum of all monthly repayments to UK banks amounted to £30.1 billion," APACS wrote in a statement.
"During the 12 months to the end of June 2007 outstanding credit card balances have reduced by £2.6 billion," it added.
According to APACS, cash machine withdrawals also climbed to 714 million for the second quarter.
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