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Christmas shoppers give credit cards a workout

Christmas shoppers give credit cards a workout

12 Feb, 2020 - 2 min read

Australians spent $25.1 billion on their credit cards in December 2019 – $1.3 billion more than the previous year, according to today’s RBA figures.

December had the highest number and value of purchases on record, with customers making an average of 19.8 card purchases in the month, totalling an average of $1,822 per account holder.

However, the exodus away from credit cards has not abated – today’s data reveals there are 933,416 fewer credit card accounts than in December 2018.

RBA credit card statistics: totals

	Dec-19	Change from Dec 2018	Comments
No. of personal credit card accounts	13,793,593	-933,416 (-6.34%)	Lowest since October 2010
Total value of purchases	$25.13 B	5.59%	Highest on record
Total number of purchases	273,358,304	8.54%	Highest on record
Debt accruing interest	$27.14 B	-8.28%	Lowest since December 2006

RBA credit card statistics: per account

	Dec-19	Change from Dec 2018	Comments
Value of purchases per account	$1,822	12.73%	Highest on record
Number of purchases per account	19.82	15.89%	Highest on record
Debt accruing interest per account	$1,968	-2.07%

Notes: Excludes commercial cards, using original data from the RBA. Data released 12 February 2020. Some people have more than one card.

Sally Tindall, research director at RateCity.com.au, said Christmas shoppers spent up on their credit cards in December.

“Millions of Australians might have turned their back on credit cards but those that are still using them, gave them a record workout in December,” she said.

“The average account holder tapped and swiped their credit card 19.8 times in December, the highest number on record.

“It’s also good to see that people with credit cards are being slightly more diligent with them. The average credit card debt per account holder has crept down 2 per cent year-on-year.

“Today’s figures show that despite the recent changes in the way we pay, the love affair with credit cards isn’t over just yet,” she said.

Disclaimer

This article is over two years old, last updated on February 12, 2020. While RateCity makes best efforts to update every important article regularly, the information in this piece may not be as relevant as it once was. Alternatively, please consider checking recent credit cards articles.

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This article was reviewed by Research Director Sally Tindall before it was published as part of RateCity's Fact Check process.

Laine Gordon

Money Editor

Laine Gordon is the Money Editor at RateCity and an experienced journalist and research specialist. With a background in news and feature writing, covering finance, media and even food (a passion of hers) at Reed Elsevier publications, Laine brings almost two decades of experience to the team. Having covered major areas of interest to the general public from hip pocket issues to rising and falling interest rates and the impact to mortgages, credit and saving in Australia, she is passionate about researching and telling people’s stories to help others make better decisions about their own finances.