Spending on credit and debit cards has overtaken cash

Spending on credit and debit cards has overtaken cash spending in the UK for the first time.

According to APACS, the UK payments association which represents card issuers, the moment that plastic spending finally overtook cash happened at 10.38am on the 29th December 2004.

APACS estimates that spending on debit and credit cards will reach ?269 billion in 2004, against £268 billion of cash payments.

In less than 40 years, plastic has become our most popular way to pay. The UK's first credit card was issued by Barclaycard in June 1966. Today there are more than 160 million plastic cards in use in the UK, with 64.9 per cent of spending accounted for by debit cards and the remainder by credit cards.