Britons come top of league of plastic card owners in Europe

A recent report has put Britons top of a league of plastic card owners. British consumers have proven to have more plastic cards in their wallets than any other country in the whole of Western Europe.

Independent market analyst Datamonitor’s information show the average British adult carrying 2.8cards about with them. This figure is practically three times the figure shown for the French.

This figure for the Brits has increased from 2.4cards in 2002, and the projected figure by 2011 is 3 or more cards per British adult.

The second top in the league is Norway, although they are considerably less with 2.3cards per adult.

At the bottom of the league come the French with an average of one card a piece for adults, Denmark show 1.1 and next are Sweden,Italy and Finland with 1.2 each.

So far these figures have been for ‘plastic cards’ in general, however Britons also lead the way by clinching the title for also having the most credit cards - averaging at 1.4 per adult.

Norway and Ireland come second, but their figure of 0.7 is HALF that of Britons.

Those from Austria, Belgium, Denmark,France,Germany,Greece,Sweden and Switzerland have an average of 0.1 cards each.

The author of the report, Andrew Fabricius, believes the difference between the figures is largely due to different consumer habits. He sees a similar pattern throughout Britain and the rest of Europe to use debit cards for everyday types of spending. Where they differ is the strong belief in Britain to use credit cards as ‘borrowing tools’ - a view not shared by their European counterparts. As a result, Brits regularly apply for new credit cards to transfer outstanding balances and they have a tendency to take advantage of interest-free offers, thus displaying such a high figure in the plastic card league.

Despite saying all that, there has also been a notable slowdown in credit card borrowing amongst Britons. In terms of total card numbers, the UK credit card market is predicted to grow at an average annual rate of a mere 0.2%.

At the other end of the scale, those markets who have a very low credit card uptake, are expected to see a significant increase. One example of this is Germany, where it expected to have an annual growth of 26% by 2011 and France is expected to have figures reaching 21%.