December 2021 saw two billion debit card transactions, new data published by UK Finance has revealed, a figure 19% more than in December 2020.

The banking body also confirmed the figure is 15.2% higher than in December 2019.

UK Finance reported a total total spend of £63.5bn for the month of December, which was 0.5% higher than the same month in 2020 and 11.5% up on December 2019.

On credit cards, UK Finance also reported 349.7 million transactions for December, a 19.7% increase on December 2020, and 1.9% higher than December 2019. The total spend of £17.3bn was 17.9% higher than December 2020, however this figure was 5.6% lower than in December 2019.

The banking body’s data also showed that outstanding balances on credit card accounts have grown by 0.4% over the 12 months to December.

Contactless payments accounted for 56% of all credit card and 69% of all debit card transactions during the month, the figures also revealed. There were 1.3 billion contactless card transactions in December, which was 40.3% more than the 939 million in December 2020, and 76.5% more than the 746 million in December 2019.

The figures also showed that the total value of contactless transactions was £20.2bn in December, which was a 65.5% increase on £12.2bn in December 2020, and a 172.5% increase on the £7.4bn reported for December a year earlier.

Furthermore, the number of contactless transactions on credit cards was 57.5% higher than December 2020, and 60.8% higher than the same month a year earlier. For debit cards, UK Finance also revealed that transactions in December 2021 represented an annual jump of 37.9% on December 2020, and 73.9% up on December 2019.

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