-250 transactions per second throughout December
-Spending in December on plastic reaches record high of £31 billion
-Debit card spending continues to dominate - reaches £19.6 billion

APACS, the UK payments association, today (1 February) issued December 2006 spending figures, which show that spending on plastic over the Christmas period reached a record £31 billion.

There were 669 million plastic card transactions in December 2006, six per cent more than during December 2005, equating to a record 250 transactions per second - day and night - through the month. Spending on plastic cards accounted for 63 per cent of total retail sales.

Spending on debit cards again rose significantly and accounted for the majority (63%) of spending on plastic cards. UK consumers spent a total of £19.6 billion on debit cards in December 2006 - an increase of 15.3 per cent (from £17 billion) on December 2005. The volume of debit card transactions also increased from 426 million transactions in December 2005 to 472 million in December 2006.

Despite the increase in overall spending on plastic cards, credit card spending has decreased slightly. Credit card spending for December 2006 came to £11.4 billion compared to £11.5 billion for the same period in 2005. There was a decrease of 4 per cent in the volume of credit card transactions, down from 205 million transactions for December 2005 to 197 million transactions in 2006.

Sandra Quinn, director of communications at APACS, said:
"We spent record amounts this Christmas and record amounts on our cards. The trend that we have seen over recent years of cards replacing cash and cheques on the high street continued this Christmas. Spending on debit cards in particular has dramatically increased and now stands at almost double the level of spending on credit cards.

Our figures show that cardholders are becoming more responsible in the way that they borrow and are clearly focusing on repayments, with the majority of spending being done by debit rather than credit cards."

UK consumer spending   December 2005   December 2006   % change

On plastic cards              £28.5 billion        £31 billion               +8.8%

On credit cards               £11.5 billion        £11.4 billion           -0.8%

On debit cards                £17 billion           £19.6 billion         +15.3%

ENDS

For further information contact the APACS Information Office:
T: 0870 420 3208 E: apacs@fourcommunications.com



APACS is a trade body that gives banks, building societies and card issuers a forum where they can work together on non-competitive issues. In a nutshell we help manage the way that businesses and individuals in the UK move their money around - this covers cash, credit and debit cards, cheques and automated payments such as direct debits and salary payments. We're also champions in the fight against banking fraud and the people who - along with the British Retail Consortium - have been working to give consumers greater card fraud protection by introducing chip and PIN. Twice a year we publish figures on banking fraud losses.