Credit Card Plastic Rules

Plastic officially took over from cash yesterday as the main payment of goods in the UK.

The Association of Payment Clearing Services said they had calculated that, by the end of tomorrow. £269billion will have changed hands on credit cards during 2004.

This figure compares with £269billion in cash over the same spending period.

There are now more than 130million credit cards in use in the UK, see this report " UK credit cards 'outnumber people' "

Today about nine in ten people carry a credit or debit card.

Jenna Smith from APACS said "When the first plastic credit cards appeared in Britain, only a handful of retailers accepted them and there were very few customers. In less than 40 years, plastic has become our most popular way to pay, due to the added security and flexibility it offers.
"The key driver has been the introduction of the debit card, which now accounts for two thirds of all plastice transactions and is used by millions every day."

Britons have run up nearly £60billion in personal debt, even before the Christmas spending season begun, see this report " Bills Starting To Mount Up "

Mike Naylor a researcher specializing in credit cards at the consumer orginisation Which? said "People think credit cards are simple, which is a big mistake. In fact, they are very complex, with lots of chargesto make money for companies which issue them.
"Much of that outstanding debt will cost cardholders dearly when they fail to make repayments on time."