Coffee and croissants paid for by credit cards
Monday, 21 November 2005 12:00
Credit cards, once the preserve of big spenders, are now regularly being used to pay for the most modest of purchases.
One person in three now uses plastic to pay for everyday low-cost items, research for Marks & Spencer Money reveals.
And a card-happy one in eight sees no reason not to buy items cheaper than £3 with their flexible friend.
"Consumers are clearly more card-savvy today and are comfortable using plastic for small as well as large purchases," said David MacKay, M&S Money commercial director.
As to why people are paying with plastic, the M&S survey reveals that 16 per cent keep better track of their spending by using credit cards, with ten per cent more finding cash too easy to spend and harder to account for.
Overall, four Britons in five now regularly prefer to use a credit or debit card over any other means of payment.
Fifty-six per cent of consumers find cards more convenient than cash, 41 per cent add that cards are safer, while a savvy 24 per cent use cards to build up loyalty rewards and other benefits.
Credit cards have enjoyed a meteoric rise in the UK.
First introduced in September 1963 by American Express, last year people spent more money on plastic than in cash.
Debit cards were added to the mix by Barclays in 1987, with Switch arriving the following year.
By the mid nineties half of UK adults held debit cards and a similar number regularly visited cash machines. By 1995 debit card transactions overtook credit card purchases.
The market was given a boost in 1999 when annual fees on credit cards disappeared; lenders also started offering zero per cent deals and in 2003 chip and pin trails started.
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