Sainsbury's Bank: Credit cards good for Christmas shopping

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Sainsbury's Bank: Credit cards good for Christmas shopping

Wed 19th Dec 2007

Credit cards can provide consumers with a convenient way to do their Christmas shopping, because they are flexible and often offer special deals such as cashback or zero per cent purchases, according to Sainsbury's Bank.

According to recent research from the bank, people intend to spend £11.85 billion on shopping during the last week before Christmas, £2.1 billion of which will be placed on credit cards. Furthermore, some 8.6 million people intend to put at least half of their last minute shopping onto credit card.

Donald MacLeod, head of cards at Sainsbury's Bank, admitted to being surprised that people were planning to spend approximately £2.7 billion more this year in the week before Christmas alone, despite many experts predicting a squeeze on spending.

"Cards are a very convenient way of doing your Christmas shopping," he said. "They can be good for two things: one, so you don’t have to carry wads of cash around. The other thing is a lot of cards come with zero per cent on purchases, like our own for example, for 12 months."

Last year, payments trade association Apacs reports that there were 142.8 million payment cards circulating in the UK. Approximately 69.5 million were credit cards, while 4.9 million were charge cards and the remaining 68.3 million were debit cards. The average credit card holder has 2.4 credit cards.

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