Connect Card celebrated by Barclays

30/5/2007

The UK’s first debit card ‘Barclays Connect Card’ was launched June 3rd 1987, the firm celebrates the launch today.

In the UK around 68 million credit cards are circulated leaving 143 purchases per second, giving a total of 68 million transactions each year.

There are more debit cards than credit cards, and more payments are made by debit cards.

Head of Debit Cards for Barclays, Brian Cunnington, said: “Plastic has revolutionised the way people spend money over the last 40 years. Ever since Barclaycard became the first credit card in Europe in 1966 the nation’s spending habits have changed. The introduction of debit cards 20 years later gave consumers even more flexibility allowing them to withdraw cash from ATMs as well as to have payments deducted directly from their current accounts when they paid in shops.

Barclays have concluded that an average customer makes 210 debit card transactions every year; they spend under £10,000 on their credit card. Battersea spend the most at £15,840 via their card. The smallest spenders are situated in small heath in Birmingham, only using their credit card 92 times a year and spending no more than £4,999.

The supermarket can look ahead to a confront over the near-term as the greatest area of development is, and will be, purchases via Internet.