Barclays celebrates 20th anniversary of the 'Connect Card'

June 3rd, 1987 was the day that Barclays revolutionised the nation’s spending habits by putting the UK’s first debit card, the Barclays Connect card, into the purses and wallets of people up and down the country.

The new cards caught on immediately and just nine months after the launch Barclays issued its millionth card.

Today, approximately 68 million debit cards are in circulation in the UK with 143 purchases per second amounting to 6.8 billion transactions every year. Debit cards now out number credit cards with 85 per cent of adults possessing one compared to 66 per cent who have a credit or charge card, and over all spending in retailers is greater on debit cards than any other form of payment.

Brian Cunnington, Head of Debit Cards for Barclays, said: “Plastic has revolutionised the way people spend money over the last 40 years. Ever since Barclaycard became the first credit card in Europe in 1966 the nation’s spending habits have changed. The introduction of debit cards 20 years later gave consumers even more flexibility allowing them to withdraw cash from ATMs as well as to have payments deducted directly from their current accounts when they paid in shops.

Twenty years on cards have moved on again with an imminent move into the world of prepaid debit cards as well as ‘wave and pay’ technology. Prepaid allows customers to load a positive balance on to a card before going shopping or on holiday. Wave and Pay allows consumers to make small purchases by simply waving their credit or debit cards in front of terminals.

According to Barclays own data the average customer makes 210 debit card transactions a year, spending just under £10,000 on their card. The biggest spenders appear to be the people of Battersea who in 2006 spent an average of £15,840 on their cards. In contrast, the lowest spenders are from Small Heath in Birmingham, who on average use their cards 92 times a year, spending less than £5,000.

Women use their cards 25 per cent more frequently than men but men spend 33 per cent more than women when they use their card spending £52 compared to £39 for women.

Every year consumers are using their cards more and more often. The most popular place to use a debit card is the supermarket where one in three of all debit card transactions happens, followed by the petrol station with one in nine and department stores with one in nineteen. Collectively the three account for over 50 per cent of debit card transactions.

However, the supermarket can expect a challenge over the coming years as the fastest area of growth is, and will be, from internet purchases.