UK shoppers spent less with credit cards in December

UK consumers were less reliant on their credit cards to fund Christmas shopping in December than they were a year earlier, figures from the British Bankers' Association (BBA) show. But ISA savings were plundered as the shopping bonanza got under way, it noted.

The BBA said 262m credit card purchases with a collective value of 13.7 billion pounds were made in December, 3 percent down on a year ago, when the total value of credit card spending was 14.2 billion pounds.

Overall, deposits into Isa savings also grew by 4.2 billion pounds across 2015, although 551 million pounds net was withdrawn from Isas in December, the report said.

Richard Woolhouse, chief economist at the BBA, said: "It seems that consumers were less reliant on credit cards to fund purchases last month despite Christmas shopping and seasonal sales."

Image:Credit cards