Christmas credit card debt ‘up this year’

The amount spent on credit and debit cards this Christmas has exceeded that of last year, a new report has revealed.

Figures published by Barclaycard have indicated that, between December 19th and December 31st, shoppers paid for more with plastic, a 2.4 per cent increase – or £4.085 million – on that spent in 2008.

This revelation comes after the Finance and Leasing Association warned Britons to avoid accruing debt on credit and store cards, after it was found that 11 per cent and 25 per cent more respectively was spent in this manner during December of last year than the other 11 months.

Barclaycard also stated that, for Christmas day 2009, 32 transactions a second were recorded.

Head of sales at Barclaycard Global Payment Acceptance Marc Pettican remarked that “a stronger post-Christmas performance” has also been seen, “as shoppers take advantage of the sales discounts and consider the effects of the imminent VAT increase”.

By Sarah Adie