Barclaycard has announced that spending on credit and debit cards was up over the 2009 festive period.

Barclay Payment Acceptance, which is one of the largest processors of credit and debit card transactions, said that UK shoppers spent more using their plastic than they did last time. The figures compare 19th December to 31st December, 2009, to the same period in 2008.

And the busiest day turns out to be the 23rd December, when a whopping £497 million was spent using credit and debit cards. Further examination of the data might show of course that this was men doing their last minute shopping.

The next busiest day was 29th December when no doubt attention turned to sale bargains. On this day some £376 million was passed through the tills using plastic.

The total turnover for the period under review was a quite staggering £4 billion, not bad considering the country is still officially in recession. It was a 2.4% increase over 2008 which saw just shy of four billion being spent.

Breaking the data even further, reveals that spending after Christmas was also up from 2008, with £1.68 billion compared to £1.64 billion.

On Christmas Day itself (thought that was a holiday), there were 700,000 transactions totalling £24 million. These appeared to peak at 12.08pm (maybe in readiness for lunch and the Queen’s Speech), with 32 transactions a second. The online retailers accounted for £9.5 million’s worth of trades on the day itself, compared to £8.1 million in 2008 (up 17%).

On boxing day, many of the transactions, which averaged around £73, were driven by the DIY sector.

Head of Sales at Barclaycard Global Payment Acceptance, Marc Pettican, said:
“Our retailers have seen an increase in turnover compared to the same period last year with over £4 billion being spent. We’ve also seen a stronger post-Christmas performance as shoppers take advantage of the sales discounts and consider the effects of the imminent VAT increase.”

Guest Article by Neil Camp