UK consumers hold 70% of European credit cards?

SnowTiger

I received an email from Pockit today which makes this claim:

The [credit card] market is well-established and hugely important for UK consumers, who hold around 70% of all credit cards in Europe.

That's quite a staggering figure. I did a bit of digging and found this which was published in 2014 by The UK Card's Association:

The UK is the biggest card payments market in the EU, accounting for over 30% of all EU card spending, and 73% of the EU credit card market...

That's huge, considering the UK makes up less than 8% of the EU's population.

Nebulous2

I think we tend to take our lead from America in this, rather than from Europe. Our levels of personal debt are staggering, goodness knows what will happen when interest rates do begin to go back up.

The picture across Europe varies from country to country as well, but credit card usage and acceptance is creeping up.

PeacefulWaters

SnowTiger wrote: »

That's huge, considering the UK makes up less than 8% of the EU's population.

It's c13%, but your point still stands.

jamesd

SnowTiger wrote: »

That's huge, considering the UK makes up less than 8% of the EU's population.

For some more context, at least one credit card is held by:

52% of UK adults
42% of Spanish
38% of French
36% of Germans
31% of Italians
62% of US adults
64% of Japanese
64% of Australians

guesswho2000

I got the same email. Must admit the figure did shock me somewhat, but on reflection it does make sense.

I tend to observe more cash transactions and have come across numerous situations across all of Europe where paying by card has been an issue for things I wouldn't think twice of in the UK or Australia. I'd happily buy a newspaper or pay for a drink by credit card, but you walk into a boozer in Amsterdam, for example, and it's not the case at all!

And I'm not sure what the situation is like in the rest of Europe, but in Ireland there's a government stamp duty chargeable per card held by each resident, something like €30 per credit card, which probably serves to keep ownership low, coupled with less attractive sign up bonuses, dissuading people from taking out heaps of them.

kovacsi76

I made a quick search for credit cards in Sweden and Denmark, and there's a huge difference in what they offer there compared to the UK. They may give you cancellation protection (if you get sick or something similar) for travel/concert tickets, travel insurance, rewards and similar things. But they don't seem to have offers like xx months 0% purchases/transfers, and most cards have annual fees, so I guess people there don't see any point in having a lot of credit cards, if any at all.

I don't know about the other European countries, but I suspect most of them might have the same system. We're kind of lucky in the UK that we can earn interest on free money and/or juggle around our debts for almost free.

zagfles

For most people it's just a way of paying/budgeting monthly rather than a way of borrowing. The majority of credit card users in the UK always pay in full.