Credit card use grows by 12%

Households are increasingly using their credit cards for day-to-day purchases.

Banks’ trade body UK Finance reckons it’s due to greater protection from making purchases on credit rather than debit cards.

But the trend also risks loading households up with longer term debts if they don’t pay off the card balance each month.

There was £11.3billion of credit card spending last month, which is up 12.1% on a year ago.

Meanwhile, the number of mortgages approved by high street banks rose in October from a four-month low in September.

House purchase mortgage approvals grew to 39,697 last month from 38,712 in September, UK Finance said.