By Dan Ilett, 19 April 2006 12:55
NEWS
Retail debit card spending has exceeded cash spending for the first time in the UK.
Last year, cash transactions for online and offline retail amounted to £81bn (34 per cent) of the total £240bn spent, while cards accounted for £89bn (37 per cent).
The figures, from banking industry body Apacs, show use of retail debit card use up nine per cent on 2004 figures of £82bn.
A spokeswoman for Apacs told silicon.com: "We're increasingly going for debit cards over cash. There are lots of drivers for this - there's now a generation of people who've grown up with plastic and there are also more places where you can use cards."
Apacs said the increase of card spending was also contributing to a rapid decline in cheque spending. The peak year of the cheque was 1990 when 11 million were written every day. By 2004 that number had halved to six million per day.
Spending on both credit and debit cards continued to increase last year, accounting for 63 per cent of all retail spending in 2005.
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