Credit card usage ‘drops 13 percent in a year’ Credit card usage dropped by 13% last year, but experts have criticised the charges people have to pay when using their plastic.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has revealed that credit card transactions have dropped by 12.9% but so did the number of transactions with cash – as the debit card usage increased by over 15%.This signals that Brits already struggling with debt do not want to increase the amount they owe, instead relying on the money they have in current accounts.The BRC also criticised the charges put on credit cards, as last year, each retailer paid just 1.7p per cash transaction, compared to an average of 37.1p for credit cards and 9.2p for a debit card.These high charges mean that although credit cards were used in just 10% of transactions, they accounted for almost half of the processing costs.Stephen Robertson, Director General of the BRC, recommended using cash instead of credit cards, and added: “Hard-pressed customers are switching to cash and debit cards for the reassurance that they can’t spend what they haven’t got.”Figures from EZPay revealed that the number of people using prepaid cards – which users can top up with money so they don’t overspend – increased by 40% from February to March this year – another signal that people don’t want to increase their debts. 
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