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Debit card spending will overtake cash as a method of payment this year, according to Visa Europe, the card processor.
Debit card transactions rose by 10 per cent last year, according to the group, which is owned by the banks for which it processes payments.
It means that 77 per cent of its business was now done with debit cards, rather than credit cards, the use of which stalled over the past year.
Total card spending at “points of sale” was up 3.7 per cent to £746 billion, Visa Europe said. The busiest day for spending was December 23, when consumers performed more than 20 million transactions and spent more than £1 billion – up 28 per cent on the same day in 2008.
The recession has meant that consumers are increasingly using debit cards to pay for purchases, rather than build up debt on credit cards, Visa said.
At the same time consumers have been reluctant to pay booking fees for payment with a credit card. Retailers are barred from making such charges on debit card transactions, but justify the credit card levies on the grounds that they are passing on so-called interchange fees charged by banks.
Internet shopping has also accelerated the rise of debit card use, with a quarter of all Visa spending in the UK conducted online over the Christmas period and 20 per cent for the year as a whole.
“The growth in e-commerce is really staggering. The proportion has doubled in four years,” said Peter Ayliffe, chief executive of Visa Europe.
December internet spending across Europe on Visa cards was up 37 per cent.
Originally posted by RadiatorOfTheLight
Not too sure I like this idea; what about those of us with bad credit? Will we be even able to recieve debit cards? What about "private transactions"? ought everybody to buy a machine that will "read and scan" your card? Plus, this will increase dependency on whomever will regulate these services, which you can bet the GOV'T will have its hand in.
Originally posted by learningtofly
What will happen when a lot of people default? Which they will.
The trouble is that people have been brainwashed into thinking it is OK to buy stuff they can't afford (and do not need, usually) by the money lenders.
Huge interest amasses and people lose their homes.
I hope these usurers can live in several homes at once because they will then own them and no-one will be able to afford to buy them.
And meanwhile people are starving.
What a corrupt society we live in - total corruption, then the end. Amen.
Originally posted by learningtofly
What will happen when a lot of people default? Which they will.
The trouble is that people have been brainwashed into thinking it is OK to buy stuff they can't afford (and do not need, usually) by the money lenders.
Huge interest amasses and people lose their homes.
I hope these usurers can live in several homes at once because they will then own them and no-one will be able to afford to buy them.
And meanwhile people are starving.
What a corrupt society we live in - total corruption, then the end. Amen.