Consumers ‘increasingly cautious’ about borrowing

Associate director Chris Tapp said that debt problems are becoming increasingly apparent to today’s consumers, which means that borrowers are a lot more cautious about the amount they borrow on credit.

His comments follow research by UK payments association Apacs, which shows that credit card spending fell by £2 billion last year to £120 billion, the first contraction since they were introduced in the 1960s.

However, the same research shows that debit card spending rapidly increased over the same period.

Although the money education charity acknowledged that debit card spending in 2006 was “way up”, Mr Tapp attributed this to changes in the way people manage their money.

“With a debit card you are spending money that you have already got,” he said.

“That might be a sign that people are borrowing slightly less, but are also changing the way they manage money and being more cautious.”