Summer shoppers to spend £3.29bn on credit cards

27 June 2008

£7.89bn will be spent in summer sales

Research by Sainsbury’s Credit Cards has indicated that British shoppers are intending to spend £3.29bn on credit cards in this year’s summer sales.

Overall, Sainsbury’s Credit Cards speculate that British consumers will part with £7.89bn in the shops this summer on items ranging from electrical goods to clothes and home-wares, but that about 42% of this sum will be put on credit cards.

However, their findings suggest that this will still be less than the amount spent last year because of the recent increases in living costs such as fuel and food.

The research, which asked shoppers in Britain about their shopping intentions, found that 25.78 million people were planning to spend an average of £305.90 on summer sale purchases. Some 3% of adults even anticipated spending more than £800 on summer sale purchases.

Sainsbury’s Credit Cards also asked shoppers to consider whether they would spend more or less than they did in 2007’s summer sales and only 20% thought that they would spend less this year despite the rising cost of living. Some 63% thought they would spend about the same.

Donald MacLeod, head of Credit Cards at Sainsbury’s Finance, said: “If you are going to use a credit card in the summer sales, it pays to use one that gives you attractive awards that are not only easy to collect but also redeem so that you really are earning whilst you spend and getting a little back.”

Click the link to compare reward credit cards.

Why not try a 0% purchase credit card and get as many as 14 months interest-free on your summer goodies.