The latest figures from the British Bankers' Association show that Britons are cutting back on credit card spending.
British consumers are becoming more cautious about their spending and are putting less on credit cards, new statistics from the British Bankers' Association (BBA) have revealed.
New spending on credit cards last month reached £6.1 billion, down 10.8 percent on April 2008, although borrowing as a whole continued to edge upwards, recording 9.8 percent annual growth.
Mortgage lending and personal loans also suffered a decline, with net mortgage lending at its lowest monthly level in eight years and the value of personal loans falling 39.3 percent in a year.
"Households' uncertain financial circumstances not surprisingly continue to dictate consumer behaviour, both in the housing market and in generating only low demand for new personal loans," said David Dooks, BBA statistics director.
The figures are in keeping with statistics released by UK payments association Apacs earlier in the month, which revealed that consumers spent three percent less with their credit cards during January to March than in the same period in 2008. Cardholders made £30.7 billion of purchases in the first quarter of 2009, compared to £31.7 billion in 2008.
Apacs did record an overall rise in plastic card use - but this was mainly down to a large increase in debit card spending.
