More paid off on cards than spent

Consumers paid off £7.4 billion on their credit cards in October, offsetting £7.2 billion in new spending on plastic.

The British Bankers' Association (BBA) reported a continuation of the trend from the previous month when £7.2 billion of repayments were made, compared with £6.9 billion which went on cards.

However, there was a £900 million reduction in October in the value of personal savings and deposits held by high street banks. The total balance ended up at £644.1 billion.

October also saw £8.9 billion in mortgages approved, slightly more than September's figure of £8.3 billion.

The mortgage market is still subdued though, said BBA statistics director David Dooks. High street banks provide around 70 per cent of new lending in the market but there is slow demand for unsecured borrowing. He said this condition reflects householders' caution in the current economic climate.

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