The majority of British credit card accounts can now be paid using the Faster Payments Service from Apacs.
Britons have been advised to take advantage of the Faster Payments Service by the UK payments association Apacs.
The utility has now been in operation for a year and has processed more than 180 million payments during this time - totalling almost £70 billion, Apacs revealed. The number of payments made a month has grown from 334,000 in May last year to an estimated 22,329,000 this month.
However, despite the popularity of the Faster Payments Service and the fact that more than half of all British credit card accounts are able to use the service, less than half of all standing order payments are made using the system.
"Our research shows that some UK customers still aren't aware that the new Faster Payments Service exists whilst some are not sure whether they've used it," said David McFarlane, company manager at CHAPS, which runs the system. He suggested that this could be because of the gradual rollout which has been employed for the system or the different approaches banks have taken to advertise the service.
"We'd encourage any customer for whom speed is important and who isn't sure they can make Faster Payments to check with their bank," Mr McFarlane added.
