Outstanding balances on credit card accounts increased by 7.6% over the year to July, new figures published by UK Finance have shown.

The banking trade body confirmed that a similar level (49.4%) of outstanding balances incurred interest in this period when compared to July last year (50%).

UK Finance revealed the figures in its card spending data for July 2024, covering the monthly value and volume of transactions across debit and credit cards, both in the UK and of UK-issued cards across the world.

The figures showed that there were 2.3 billion debit card transactions made by UK cardholders in July, a total 5.1% more than in July 2023. The total spend of £68.8bn was 0.9% on the same month last year.

There were also 403 million credit card transactions made by UK cardholders in July, which was 8.2% more than in July 2023. The total spend on these cards, of £22.5bn, was 8.5% higher than July last year.

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