June 10 - Credit Card Statistics

Annual underlying growth in credit card borrowing (after allowing for the effects of debt write-offs by card issuers following account default by cardholders) is stable at 3.1%.

"The first half of this year saw the number of credit card purchases 2% higher than in the same period last year, but because monthly spending is regularly more than offset by repayments, outstanding borrowing across all cards continues to reduce.

"The use of credit cards as a spending tool rather than a credit source is highlighted by the fact that 35% of card accounts have no borrowing on them and 30% of balances do not incur any interest. Competition in the market has seen more than 2 million balances transferred so far this year."

Please read the full release via the links below.