Plastic set to make a paper pushover

Plastic is set to overtake cash as Britons’ most popular method of payment, according to The Way We Pay, a new industry report released today. Debit cards are leading a trend that means that in 2004, for the first time, plastic card payments will outstrip cash payments for goods and services.

The watershed comes after a year in which the number of plastic cards in use grew by 13 million (nine per cent) to 160.6 million, accounting for £243.9 billion of spending. Debit cards accounted for two-thirds of plastic card transactions (64.9 per cent) and more than half of expenditure on plastic (£130.5 billion).

The report from the Association for Payment Clearing Services (Apacs) also said card fraud was in decline for the first time in eight years.

Apacs credited the increasing use of chip and PIN to replace signatures as authorisation for the fall in fraud. Britain is leading the world with £1.1 billion investment in chip and PIN anti-crime initiative, the report said.

Sandra Quinn, Director of Corporate Communications for APACS, said: “Britain is truly a “plastic society” – but not in the sensationalist way that many newspaper headlines would make you believe. Without plastic, our society would virtually grind to a halt.”


Worldwide	England	Northern Ireland	Scotland	Wales	London	Spain	France	Italy	USA	Investment


Privacy policy Terms of use Support Bookmark now! uk index						TheMoveChannel.com is a protected Trademark. Copyright © 2000 - 2008 On The Move Ltd. All rights reserved.