Debit cards are the bread and butter of banking, allowing you to spend the balance of your bank account without borrowing (unless you have an overdraft, of course). They are an extremely versatile and popular way of spending, so we decided to investigate how we Brits use debit cards.
Debit card statistics: Highlights
As of October 2023, 102 million debit cards were in circulation in the UK, 94 million of which were contactless.
According to research, the average person has 1.95 debit cards.
Contactless payments account for 76% of all debit card transactions as of October 2023.
The average debit card spend is £33.30 as of March 2023.
An average of 65.3 million transactions were made daily in the UK in March 2023.
There were 23.5 billion transactions on debit cards in the UK in the year to March 2023.
UK debit card transactions equalled a total of £67.2 billion in October 2023.
Total debit card spending from March 2022 to March 2023 equals £807.3 billion.
Spending abroad on UK debit cards in August 2022 was 16.3% than in January 2023.
How many debit cards are there in the UK?
As of October 2023, 102 million debit cards were issued in the UK, and 94 million of these were contactless. This has increased slightly since March 2022, when there were around 101 million debit cards in circulation.
How many debit cards does the average person have?
According to external research, the average person has 1.95 debit cards. There is no limit on the number of debit cards you can have, but some people find 1 is sufficient, whereas others may have 2 or 3 that they use for slightly different purposes.
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How many debit card transactions are made per day in the UK?
In March 2023, there were an average of 65.3 million transactions made daily in the UK. There were over 2 billion transactions on debit cards in the UK throughout the month, up by 6.5% compared to the 1.9 billion transactions made in March 2022.
Volume of purchases on debit cards in the UK (mns)
Volume of purchases on debit cards outside the UK (mns)
March 2022
1900
119
April 2022
1841
121
May 2022
1991
124
June 2022
1894
121
July 2022
1973
128
Aug 2022
2008
133
Sep 2022
1887
118
Oct 2022
2069
120
Nov 2022
2038
116
Dec 2022
2100
124
Jan 2023
1842
115
Feb 2023
1800
109
March 2023
2024
122
What is the average debit card spend in the UK?
The average debit card spend per transaction for March 2023 is £33.30. In comparison, the average transaction value for March 2022 was £32.87, meaning there was only a 1.3% increase.
How does the value of debit card transactions vary?
The majority of debit card transactions are made in the UK, and the value of transactions over the past year peaked in March 2023, with £67.4 billion being spent.
The lowest amount spent on debit cards in the UK over the past year was in February 2023, with a total value of £57.7 billion spent. This means that, in just 1 month, there was a 16.8% increase in total debit card spend in the UK.
The total spending from March 2022 to March 2023 equals £807.3 billion, which means that the average monthly spending from March 2022 to March 2023 is £62.1 billion.
As expected, the value of purchases made on UK debit cards outside the UK is significantly less than those made within the UK. Take the fact that only a little over £3.3 billion was spent out of the UK in March 2023 – this is less than 5% of the total value being spent in the UK.
The value of purchases made outside the UK varies seasonally due to people travelling abroad more in the summer months. In the colder months, like January 2023, there was a value of only just £3 billion spent. On the other hand, August 2022 had the highest spending, with a value of £3.8 billion, which is 16.3% higher than the amount spent in January.
Use our calculator to find out how long it would take to clear your credit card balance by making the minimum required payments vs paying a fixed amount each month.
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Matthew Boyle is a banking and mortgages publisher at Finder. He has a 7-year history of publishing helpful guides to assist consumers in making better decisions. In his spare time, you will find him walking in the Norfolk countryside admiring the local wildlife. See full bio
Matthew's expertise
Matthew has written 285 Finder guides across topics including:
Helping first-time buyers apply for a mortgage
Comparing bank accounts and highlighting useful features
An estimated £1.3 billion has been spent on unwanted gifts in the UK, with around 31 million Brits receiving a gift they did not want.
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