Debit cards topple cash as favourite way to pay

Published on Thursday 2 December 2010 17:03

Debit cards have overtaken cash to become the UK's most popular payment method for the first time.

On 30 August, the amount of money people had spent on debit cards since the beginning of the year overtook the value of transactions paid for in cash for the first time at 272 billion, compared with 269bn for cash, according to the Payments Council.

The value of purchases made using debit cards rose by 10 per cent during the third quarter of the year, compared with a year earlier, to 73.1bn, with an additional 1.6 million transactions carried out every day.

People also used their debit cards three times more often than they used their credit cards, with 1.7 billion debit card transactions carried out during the three months, compared with just 500 million credit and charge card ones.

Sandra Quinn, director of communications at the Payments Council, said: "Cash is too cumbersome for many consumers these days - they prefer a card for anything more than the smallest transactions.

"We now expect our debit cards to be accepted everywhere - in pubs and clubs, at the corner shop, online and on the high street. Having quickly supplanted cheques, then claimed the scalp of credit cards, they have now usurped cash's throne too."

The use of cheques continued to decline rapidly, with 104 million fewer written during the past year.