Online credit card spending soars

ONLINE credit card spending has soared five-fold during the past four years, figures showed today.

The Association of Payment Clearing Services said one in 10 credit card transactions took place online during the second half of 2003, up from just one in 50 in 1999.

At the same time it said the average number of purchases each internet shopper made had almost doubled since 2000, when around 6.7m people made an average of 6.5 purchases a year.

Since then the number of people who shop online has tripled, and people now make an average of 11.2 purchases a year.

The group said the most popular items to buy online were books and CDs, followed by travel-related purchases, computer equipment, financial services products and groceries.

People also tend to spend more when they buy things online than when they go into a shop, spending an average of £69 on credit cards and £54 on debit cards, compared with £58 and £39 respectively on the high street.

Around 72% of internet users now shop or bank online, with an estimated 13 million now banking over the internet and around six million credit card holders checking their statements online.

Men are bigger online shoppers than women, with 35% of the 10.5m male internet shoppers making eleven or more purchases over the internet during the second half of 2003, compared with 27% of women.

Sandra Quinn, APACS director of communications, said: 'It's no real surprise that the internet is being used by more of us more of the time to shop and bank.

'It's convenient, secure and ideally suits the time-poor society we live in.'