“In their embargoed release dated 19 March 2007 titled ‘uSwitch.com
exposes the credit card cash rates scandal’, uSwitch.com claims that
“since the introduction of chip and PIN 730,000 people (11%) withdraw
cash on credit cards on a more regular basis” suggesting that people are
using their credit cards more frequently. This claim is based on unclear
methodology rather than the industry-wide robust figures, which we
collate and are freely available. Therefore this statement is wrong and
misleading. We would encourage uSwitch to check their facts before they
make such claims.
APACS, the UK payments association, collects statistics directly
from credit card issuers in the UK and this data clearly shows that in
2006 both the number and value of cash withdrawals on credit cards is
tiny compared to those on debit cards and for the first time last year
actually fell.
The number of cash withdrawals on credit cards fell 8% in
2006 down to 61m from 66m in 2005. The total value of cash withdrawn
declined even more, falling by 10 per cent (GBP0.95bn) from GBP9.17bn to GBP8.22bn
In contrast debit card cash withdrawals rose. The number of withdrawals
was up by three per cent in 2006 to 2.16bn transactions from 2.1bn in
2005. The total value of cash withdrawn also rose up 10 per cent from
GBP141.8bn to GBP156.2bn.
This suggests that customers do understand that taking cash from cash
machines with their credit cards will generally cost them more, so they
prefer to use their debit cards where they can.
