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Consumers in the United Kingdom spent 95.5 billion pounds (US$156.9 billion or 107.3 billion euros) with debit, credit and charge cards during the second quarter ended 30 June, up 3% from 92.7 billion pounds during the same period last year, according to the UK Cards Association, an issuer trade group formally known as APACS. Consumers continued to increase their use of debit cards, which accounted for 74.7% of all card purchases in the second quarter, up from 73.3% during the same period last year, the group said Tuesday. Consumers made about 1.5 billion debit card purchases during the quarter, up 8.7% from a year earlier. Consumers made about 500 million credit and charge card purchases, down 0.1%, the group says.
