Card payments show largest growth in nine years

The UK Finance has released its latest car expenditure statistics for June 2017. Highlights from the statistics include:

• Total card spending reached £57.1 billion in June, up by 0.3% on May and 7% on June 2016.
• There were just under 1.4 billion card payments in June, a monthly record and a 12% rise in the last 12 months. This is the highest annual rate of growth in the number of payments since June 2008, driven by a robust rise in online (+20%) and contactless (+143%) purchases.
• Retail sector spending rose by £19 million in June to reach £26.1 billion. The largest increase in retail sector spending was on food and drink, which passed £10 billion in June. Service sector spending rose by £138 million to £31 billion.
• Contactless payments accounted for 34% of all card transactions, while online payments accounted for 13%.

Richard Koch, Head of Cards at UK Finance, said “Contactless payments accounted for a third of transactions in June with consumers continuing to use their cards for lower value purchases.While spending recorded a relatively modest monthly growth, the number of transactions rose at a faster rate with some 46 million card purchases made every day.”

	Total Spending £ billions		Annual growth rates for spending		Number of purchases Millions
	Jun 2017	Jun 2016	Jun 2017	Jun 2016	Jun 2017	Jun 2016
All payment cards	57.1	53.5	7.2%	4.9%	1,381	1,230
Of which online	15.4	12.2	21.7%	7.8%	186	149
Debit cards	40.6	38.2	7.3%	5.6%	1,078	951
Credit cards	16.5	15.4	6.9%	3.4%	304	279

• The average transaction value on all card payments fell by 16p to £41.36 in June, the lowest level since June 2000. This compares to £43.53 a year ago and £50.55 at the peak in July 2011.

• The largest increase in spending between May and June was on tax preparation services. Travel related merchants such as foreign currency exchange, auto rental and miscellaneous travel also recorded strong growth in June.

• The debit and credit card share of total retail sales was 77 per cent in June.