In these straightened times, U.K. citizens are turning away from their credit cards and relying more on their debit cards.

So says payments association ‘Apacs’ which reported that the total spent on plastic in the first quarter of 2009 was £94.2 billion, up a total of 5.4%. And the number of purchases was £1.9 billion, up 6.5%. Debit cards were responsible for 74.5% of all plastic card purchases in the first quarter of 2009, up 4% compared to first quarter 2008. In the same period, purchases by credit cards dropped 3%.

The use of cheques fell again, with the number clearing through the system down by just over 10% and their total value falling by 9.4%.

Apacs also reported that automated cash machines (ATM) were doing a roaring trade, with £45 million being withdrawn in the first quarter.

Those financial institutions and individuals using The Faster Payments Service continues to gain in popularity, with the first quarter of 2009 seeing a tad over 60 million payments processed. These payments totalled up to a respectable £20.6 billion.

Since the launch of The Faster Payment System in May 2008, which is designed to speed the processing of money between financial institutions, over £50 billion of payments have been processing, representing 142.9 million payments.

Guest Article by Neil Camp