UK Finance card spending update December 2023

UK Finance today releases its card spending data for December 2023, covering the monthly value and volume of transactions across debit and credit cards, both in the UK and of UK-issued cards across the world. This data also covers outstanding balances on credit cards, card issuance and contactless payments. The highlights can be found below.

Key data highlights:

Card transactions by UK cardholders both in the UK and overseas:

• There were 2.28 bn debit card transactions in December, 2.3 % more than in December 2022. The total spend of £68.4 bn was 1.4 % lower than December 2022.
• There were 371.4m credit card transactions in December, 3.8 % more than in December 2022. The total spend of £19.2 bn was 3.7 % higher than December 2022.
• Outstanding balances on credit card accounts have grown by 9.7 % over the twelve months to December and 50.1 % of outstanding balances incurred interest compared to 50.2 % in December 2022.

Card transactions made in the UK by cardholders from both the UK and from overseas countries:

• Contactless payments accounted for 63 % of all credit card and 75 % of all debit card transactions.
• There were 1.59 bn contactless card transactions in December, 5.1 % more than the 1.51 bn in December 2022. The total value of contactless transactions was £27.5 bn in December, a 7.2 % increase on £25.7 bn in December 2022.

The number of contactless credit card transactions was 8.8 % higher than December 2022. The number of contactless debit card transactions was 4.6 % higher than December 2022