Brits top Euro list of plastic fanatics

Posted 2008-02-15

The average British consumer owns almost three times as many debit or credit cards as his French counterpart, new research has suggested.

Whereas six years ago there were 2.4 cards for every adult in the UK, that figure has now risen to 2.8 and makes British people the most plastic-obsessed consumers in Europe.

The French apparently have the strongest aversion to cards, with the average citizen carrying just one, while people from Sweden, Italy, Finland and even Ireland have just 1.2 on average.

Even second-place Norway is lagging behind somewhat with 2.3 pieces of plastic - but when it comes to credit cards Brits storm ahead even further, having twice as many (1.4 per adult) as in any other European nation.

“In the UK, consumers use debit cards for day-to-day spending much like their European counterparts, but are increasingly using credit cards as borrowing tools,” said Andrew Fabricius of Datamonitor. “In most other countries, consumers do not view credit cards as a borrowing tool and as a result they are not so popular.”

He cited nations such as Austria, Belgium, Greece, Sweden and Denmark - all of whom have 0.1 credit cards for every citizen.

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