APACS, the UK payments association, has released its UK consumer spending predictions for December, which estimate that spending on cards, cash and cheques will reach £53bn.

The figure is an increase of 4.2% on December 2006, when it was £50.8bn.  
APACS’ forecasts reflect that plastic card use is increasing, and is expected to reach £34.1bn this December, making up 64.3% of the total predicted spend, up from 61% in 2006.

Continuing recent trends these figures show that as credit card spending remains flat, debit card use continues to grow as the most popular method of plastic payment. Overall plastic card spending looks set to rise. In December 2006 £31bn was spent on plastic cards, and this year APACS predicts that to rise by 9.9% to £34.1bn.

Sandra Quinn, director of communications at APACS, said: “Whether buying the turkey or stocking fillers, we’re most likely to be using our debit card to pay for them this Christmas, continuing the ongoing trend of pulling out the debit card in preference to our credit cards, cash or cheques. The one exception is online where we are much more likely to use our credit cards – which makes sense because of the extra consumer protection they provide.”