UK Finance publish latest data on UK card spending
Industry News | 16/01/20
Card Spending covers the monthly value and volume of transactions across debit and credit cards, both in the UK, and of UK-issued cards across the world. This data also covers outstanding balances on credit cards, card issuance and contactless payments.
Card transactions by UK cardholders:
• There were 1.6 billion transactions on debit cards in October 2019, 9.3 per cent more than in October 2018. This reflected a total spend of £51.0 billion, 2.0 per cent more than in the same period in 2018.
• There were 291 million transactions on credit cards in October 2019, 0.7 per cent fewer than in October 2018. This reflected a total spend of £16.6 billion, 2.7 per cent less than in the same period a year earlier.
• The annual growth rate of outstanding balances on credit cards stood at 3.3 per cent in October 2019, continuing the downward trend from its recent peak of 8.3 per cent at the start of 2018.
Card transactions made in the UK by cardholders from both the UK and from overseas countries:
• There were 1.7 billion debit and credit card transactions in October 2019, 8.4 per cent more than a year ago. This reflected a total spend of £63.3 billion, 4.5 per cent more than in the same period in 2018.
• 33 per cent of credit card transactions and 48 per cent of debit card transactions in the UK were made using contactless cards.
• In total there were 761 million contactless card transactions in October 2019, a 10.3 per cent increase from 689 million in the same month a year earlier. Growth in credit card contactless transactions were 14.1 per cent more than in the same period a year earlier and debit card contactless transactions were 9.7 per cent more than the same period a year earlier.
• The total value of contactless transactions was £7.1 billion in October 2019, a 11.4 per cent increase from £6.4 billion in the same month in 2018.
