Today, we published our annual Payments Survey report, highlighting how consumer payment habits shifted in 2024. One of the biggest changes was a notable drop in credit card use, which fell from 14.2% of all transactions to 12.6%. With interest rates remaining high, credit cards became a costlier way to shop, prompting many people to rely more heavily on debit cards. As a result, debit card usage rose from 62.0% to 64.0% of transactions.
While total card fees dipped slightly in 2024 compared to the previous year, they still amounted to £1.48 billion—more than double what retailers paid in 2019.
As pressures from the cost-of-living crisis began to ease, shopping behaviours also started to return to pre-crisis patterns. Customers were once again opting for larger, less frequent shopping trips. Although the total number of transactions dipped from 20.9 billion to 20.4 billion, the average amount spent per purchase increased across every payment type.
Cash payments continued their gradual decline but still played a key role for many shoppers, making up 19.2% of all transactions. More customers also explored alternative payment options, especially for high-value purchases. Methods such as PayPal, gift vouchers, and Buy Now Pay Later gained more traction throughout the year.
In the report we make the following recommendations
Meaningful reform from the PSR on card fees: Including a long-term cap to significantly reduce scheme and processing fees and bring genuine reform to the market.
A review of the commercial card market: With commercial card fees rising 8% (based on turnover), the BRC wants the PSR to launch a market review to ensure the payment system is working fairly for everyone.
Growth of Open Banking: The BRC supports expanding Open Banking in the UK to create a genuinely competitive alternative to card payments—both online and in-store—at a fairer cost to retailers.
The full press release can be found here.
The report is below.
