AUGUST 17TH, 2005

We spent a whopping £436 billion on our plastic cards in 2004 as we ditched our cash and cheques for our little plastic cards.

This means that our spending on plastic was up 11 percent on our 2003 figures. This was based on a combined value of transactions that were made on all our cards including debit, credit, charge and store cards.

Figures prove that it is on the increase as we spent 60 percent of our household spending on the plastic. In 2000 we spent 44 percent and only 26 percent in 1995. That is a massive growth over 10 years - a 34 percent increase.

The reasons for the growth are clear. The technology is trusted now and extremely common to consumers. Most popular are debit cards because the money comes out immediately from your account on the same day.

But we certainly are more confident about racking up our debts using the credit card version as we adopt a buy now pay later approach.

Our credit card spending rose 9 percent in 2004. But interest rates have come down on credit cards compared to that of the 90's as competition is intense for gaining new customers.

We are now becoming more aware of theft as we use our cards as a way of not having to use a cash point where consumers often feel vulnerable as more scams are hitting the ATM machines.

We have however started to slow down our spending in recent months as a rise in interest rates and a slow decline of value in our properties.