Card spending climbs 8.9%

Monday, 17 May 2010 10:32

By myfinances.co.uk staff

Spending on credit and debit cards was 8.9 per cent higher in April compared with a year earlier, according to new figures form Barclaycard.

Statistics from the company's Payment Acceptance arm, which handles transactions for 87,000 UK businesses, show that month-on-month, spending on cards was up 0.8 per cent.

This is compared to an 18% increase between February and March.

Barclaycard said that the busiest day of the month for card use was April 30th, the Friday of the May Day bank holiday weekend, when 12.7 million payments were processed.

However, the company said that overall credit and debit card spending was 1.4 per cent lower for the weekend as a whole compared with the 2009 bank holiday.

Despite the drop in card payments, cash withdrawals from ATMs were up, as more than £1.5 billion was taken out over the weekend - up nine per cent on last year, according to figures from the UK Payments Association.

Indeed, April 30th set a new record for daily cash withdrawals, with Link machines across the country issuing £590 million.

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