Christmas transactions peaked on 19th December

Data released by Barclaycard Payment Acceptance which processes credit and debit card payments for some 88,000 retailers, shows shops experienced a lunchtime rush last Saturday as transactions peaked at 370 per second at 12.48 pm.

The data also shows that people are spending less this Christmas, comparing the last Saturday before Christmas, spending was down 2.6% this year with a fall in the amount of individual transactions of 7% with a total of 7.3 million transactions.

However, despite the decrease in card spending, some sectors saw higher spending including:

Supermarket spending on cards up 15.2%
Service station spending on cards up 24.9%
Department stores card spending increased 18.0%

Commenting on the data, Stuart Neal, Head of UK Payment Acceptance at Barclaycard said: "What we have seen over the busiest weekend of the year in the retail industry is a fall overall in terms of spending, but continued increases in areas where you would expect at Christmas such as supermarkets and department stores, as customers continue to treat their loved ones."