Outstanding balances on credit cards increase by 8.3%

18th July 2024
paying interest on credit cards

Latest UK Finance card spending data for April 2024 has shown that outstanding balances on credit card accounts have grown by 8.3 per cent over the twelve months to April and 49.4 per cent of outstanding balances incurred interest compared to 49.6 per cent in April 2023.

There were 374.6 million credit card transactions in April, 15.3 per cent more than in April 2023. The total spend of £21 billion was 14.4 per cent higher than April 2023.

The data also showed that there were 2.2 billion debit card transactions in April, 6.9 per cent more than in April 2023. The total spend of £69.1 billion was 3.4 per cent higher than April 2023.

There were 2.05 billion debit and credit card transactions in the UK in April, 0.1 per cent more than in April 2023. The total spend of £73.9 billion was 1.9 per cent lower than April 2023.

Contactless payments accounted for 64 per cent of all credit card and 75 per cent of all debit card transactions.

There were 1.59 billion contactless card transactions in April, 1 per cent more than the 1.49 billion in April 2023. The total value of contactless transactions was £23.7 billion in April, a 1.2 per cent increase on £23.5 billion in April 2023.

The number of contactless credit card transactions was 6 per cent higher than April 2023. The number of contactless debit card transactions was 0.2 per cent higher than April 2023.

Lee Hopley, Director of Economic Insight and Research at UK Finance, said “April saw increased usage of debit and credit cards and the continued popularity of contactless payments. There was increased spending on credit cards during the month, but the rate of increase in overall outstanding balances was the slowest since February 2022.”