Debit cards turn 20

British consumers have had direct access to their bank accounts through debit cards for 20 years, as the industry celebrated the anniversary over the weekend.

Barclays issued the first debit card, Barclay’s Connect, on June 3rd 1987 and within nine months the bank had issued one million of them.

There are now 68 million debit cards in the UK in the hands of 85 per cent of adults, a figure well above the 66 per cent who have credit cards.

Every second 143 purchases are made on a debit card according to the Association for Payment Clearing Services (Apacs), with 6.8 billion transactions taking place every year.

Recently in the history debit cards, chip and pin technology was introduced to combat fraud. Quick payments are set to get even easier as ‘contactless payment’, is introduced.

Meanwhile, paying by cheque is in decline as both customers and companies prefer to take and make payments with the debit card. Research by Visa UK revealed that only two percent of retail turnover was collected in cheques and only six per cent of customers prefer the paper and pen method for making payments.