Jun 30, 2011 Posted by Grace Macarthur No Comments » Tags: Credit Card Year

Credit card use fell last year

Credit cards have provided consumers with convenience, ease and flexibility for many years, which has helped them to become hugely popular. However, they have also resulted in huge debt levels amongst those that have come to rely on their in the difficult financial market and those who find it difficult to control their spending. Credit card debt has become an enormous problems amongst borrowers over recent years, with many struggling to repay their credit card and other debts.

Following research that was carried out by the British Retail Consortium it has now been revealed that credit card use actually fell last year, as consumers finally tried to pull themselves out of the vicious cycle of debt that they have found themselves in. The BRC represents 90 percent of UK stores and said that more consumers used cash and debit cards last year, causing credit card use to fall by just under 13 percent.

The BRC also confirmed that there had been a drop in the number of transactions involving credit cards last year, although there was a 13 percent increase in the amount spent per transaction. Debit card use is said to have increased over the same period by 15.8 percent. The BRC slated the bank charges that are associated with credit card use, stating that they are the costliest of the payments that they have to process.

The BRC said that consumers were thinking along the lines of avoiding spending what they hadn’t really got, hence the decision to switch from credit card use to debit cards and cash.

An official from the BRC said: “Hard-pressed customers are switching to cash and debit cards for the reassurance that they can’t spend what they haven’t got. At the same time, use of credit cards has dropped sharply. Cash remains king – used for more than half of all retail payments. “

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