Consumers ‘switching to debit cards’

Britons are “increasingly” opting to use their debit cards to make payments for purchases, it has been noted, something that could help them avoid building up credit card debt.

Figures published by Apacs, the UK payments association, have showed that 43 per cent of online and offline retail transactions were carried out by debit card last year.

This compares to 23 per cent for credit cards, while cash accounted for 32 per cent, the report revealed.

Director of communications for the organisation Sandra Quinn noted: “The rise to dominance of the debit card both on and off the high street has been meteoric.”

The products now account for around two-thirds of all spending on plastic cards, the body stated.

Recently, Paul Rodford, head of policy at the UK Cards Association, claimed that sixty per cent of credit card users pay off their balances in full each month, explaining that this means they are largely unaffected by rises in interest rates.

By Jamie Price