UK credit card outstanding balances rise by 9.5% in February image credit shutterstock

UK debit cardholder transactions in February are up by 6.7% year-on-year to 2.06 billion. But debit card spend rises only modestly, by 0.5% y-o-y to £60.9bn.

There were 329.8 million credit card transactions in February, 8.6% more than in February 2023. The total credit card spend of £18.8bn is 8.9% higher than February 2023.

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Outstanding balances on credit card accounts rise by 9.5% over the twelve months to February. Some 50% of outstanding balances incurred interest compared to 51.2% in February 2023.

Card transactions made in the UK by cardholders from the UK and overseas countries

There were 1.96 billion debit and credit card transactions in the UK in February, 7.7% more than in February 2023. The total spend of £67.7bn was 1.9% higher than February 2023.

Contactless payments accounted for 63% of all credit card and 75% of all debit card transactions.

There were 1.44 billion contactless card transactions in February, 8.5% more than the 1.33 billion in February 2023. The total value of contactless transactions was £22.1bn in February. That is up by a 11.3% on £19.8bn in February 2023. Contactless credit card transactions are 10.9% up y-o-y. The number of contactless debit card transactions was 8.1% higher than February 2023.

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Janine Randolph, Head of Data Management, UK Finance, said: “Growth in credit card balances outstanding was largely unchanged. But the volume of balances incurring interest fell a little during the same period. This partly reflects the continuing rising cost of goods. Reassuringly, it means we haven’t seen signs of a fall in consumers’ ability to manage their credit card repayments.”