The latest UK card stats reveal that the growth in UK credit card spending is down to 4.9% in February. In February 2018 the corresponding figure was 8.3%.
On the other hand, the use of credit cards continues to increase as a payment method in the UK.
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There were 246 million transactions on UK cardholders’ credit cards in February 2019, 4.6% more than in February 2018.
This equates to a total value of £14.6bn, 1.3% higher than in the same period a year earlier.
There were 1.5 billion transactions on UK cardholders’ debit cards in February 2019, 9.7% more than in February 2018. This equates to a total value of £49.9bn 0.9% higher than in the same period a year earlier.
There were 1.6 billion debit and credit card transactions in February 2019, 10.7% more than a year ago. This equates to a total value of £60.1bn, 2.3% up on February 2018. This data includes transactions on both UK-issued cards and cards issued overseas.
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By GlobalDataUK card stats: contactless accounts for 1 in 3 cards transactions
Nearly one third of all card transactions in the UK were made using contactless cards. There were 644 million contactless card transactions in February 2019, up by 20.6% year-on-year.
The total value of contactless transactions was £5.9bn in February 2019, a year-on-year increase of 19.8%. This data includes transactions on both UK-issued cards and cards issued overseas.
The UK card stats for February show that there are 97 million debit cards in circulation. Around 82 million of the debit cards are contactless enabled.
There are 61 million UK credit cards in issue of which 43 million are contactless enabled.
In total, there are 51 million UK credit card accounts of which 34 million are active.
