Credit card spending slows

UK Finance has published its latest Card Spending Update, outlining the data for spending on card transactions by UK cardholders in November 2019. The update shows there were 1.6 billion transactions on debit cards in November 2019, 8.8 per cent more than on the same month in 2018. This reflected a total spend of £51.2 billion, 2.6 per cent more than in the same period in 2018.

Meanwhile, there were 295 million transactions on credit cards in November 2019, up 0.4 per cent year-on-year. The total spend on credit cards was £16.5 billion, representing 2 per cent less than in the same period a year earlier.

The annual growth rate of outstanding balances on credit cards stood at 2.4 per cent in November 2019, continuing the downward trend from its recent peak of 8.3 per cent at the start of 2018.

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.

There were 1.7 billion debit and credit card transactions in November 2019, 8.6 per cent more than a year ago. This reflected a total spend of £63.8 billion, 5.5 per cent more than in the same period in 2018. 32 per cent of credit card transactions and 46 per cent of debit card transactions in the UK were made using contactless cards.

In total there were 740 million contactless card transactions in November 2019, a 11.4 per cent increase from 664 million in the same month a year earlier.  Growth in credit card contactless transactions were 15.7 per cent more than in the same period a year earlier and debit card contactless transactions were 10.6 per cent more than the same period a year earlier.

The total value of contactless transactions was £6.9 billion in November 2019, a 11.7 per cent increase from £6.4 billion in the same month in 2018.

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