To mark the first anniversary of the UK card industry’s Be Card Smart Online initiative, The UK Cards Association is again running its online safety campaign – helping to remind consumers of the steps they can take to minimize their chances of being a victim of card fraud online. READ MORE

Financial Fraud Action UK, the voice of the industry in the UK for financial fraud matters, (previously known as APACS) has published the latest payment industry fraud losses for the first half of 2009, in conjunction with The UK Cards Association and the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company.

By fraud category, here are the results:

• Card not present - £134m (down 18% vs first half 2008)
• Counterfeit cards - £46.3m (down 48%)
• Lost or stolen cards - £25.1m (down 6%)
• Card ID theft - £23.9m (up 23%)
• Card lost in post - £3.5m (down 33%)
• Total - £232.8m (down 23%)

The fraud to turnover rate on debit and credit cards amounted to 0.1 per cent in the first half of the year – reflecting the fact that around a tenth of a penny is lost to fraud in every £1 spent on cards. READ MORE

Figures published by The UK Cards Association show that donations to charitable organisations on plastic cards reached £1.19 billion in 2008 – up from £1.01 billion in 2007 – an increase of 18%. In terms of the number of donations made on plastic cards there was an overall increase of 13% from 2007 to 2008. Donations on debit cards increased by 16% (up from 13 million in 2007 to 15.1 million last year) while credit card transactions rose 9% (9.6 million in 2007 to 10.5 million last year). READ MORE

Photo: AustinEvan

71% of all cash acquired by consumers came from cash machines

2.9 billion cash machine withdrawals were made last year - equivalent to 91 withdrawals per second

Cash payment volumes are forecast to fall by 27% over the next 10 years

If current trends persist, next year for the first time debit card spending will overtake cash spending by value in the UK. READ MORE

APACS has published its latest quarterly statistical release - reporting that in the first quarter were 1.9 billion plastic card purchases made in the UK totalling £94.2 billion compared to 1.8 billion purchases totalling £91.2 billion in the first quarter of 2008. The number of purchases was 4.0% higher than in 2008 Q1, and spending was 1.7% higher. Debit card usage continued to outpace credit cards - with debit cards accounting for 74.5% of all plastic card purchases in 2009 Q1 compared with 73.3% in 2008 Q1.

APACS has released new figures from the UK payments industry that give an authoritative overview of UK consumers’ spending habits last year.

The retail spending statistics, which cover all online and offline retail transactions in 2008, show that of a total £269.9bn spent by consumers, 43 per cent (£116.1bn) was by debit card, 32 per cent (£86bn) was by cash, 23 per cent (£60.7bn) was by credit card and only 3 per cent (£7.1bn) was by cheque."

UK card fraud loss figures released by APACS, the UK payments association, show that card fraud losses totalled £609.9m in 2008. The two main areas of fraud were on transactions not protected by chip and PIN: specifically internet, phone and mail order fraud; and fraud abroad - committed by criminals using stolen UK card details in countries yet to upgrade to chip and PIN - which has nearly doubled in two years. READ MORE

APACS has released full year 2008 data for payments in the UK . Highlights from the full year’s data include:

• Plastic cards: Total debit and credit card spending was up in 2008 in terms of both value and volume, increasing 6.8% and 7.4% respectively.
• Debit cards dominate card spending - accounting for 73.5% of all plastic card purchase transactions in 2008.
• There were 42.1 million debit cardholders with 75 million debit cards in issue at the end of 2008, compared with 30.1 million credit card holders with 71 million credit cards.
• The number of debit cardholders and cards in issue increased by 1.0% and 4.7% respectively, whereas the number of credit card holders and cards in issue decreased by 2.1% and 2.4% respectively.
• Cheques: During 2008, the number of cheque transactions went down by 10.4%, total values declined by 7.1%.

APACS, the UK payments association, has announced December 2008 spending figures showing that spending on plastic cards over the Christmas period reached £32.3 billion - up 0.3% from 2007, with £4.7 billion spent online. Debit card spending grew to £21.6 billion, up 3.1%, while credit card spending declined to £10.8 billion, down 4.8% from 2007. READ MORE

APACS, the UK payments association, has issued a press release advising "about the recent rise in popularity of an old-style phone scam that involves fraudsters duping unsuspecting cardholders into revealing their card details by pretending to be from either their bank, card company or one of the international card schemes – Visa and MasterCard." READ MORE

In the UK, APACS has created an online, interactive map to demonstrate the varied payment attitudes, preferences and behaviours that can be seen in the different regions of the UK. READ MORE

APACS has announced that, "following a successful meeting on 11 December between the [UK] credit card industry and Government, real changes for credit card holders who may be struggling to make their regular payments are announced. This delivers on the industry’s commitment to draw up new principles made at the credit card summit on 26 November. APACS has published a fact sheet to explain exactly what has been agreed and what the changes mean for credit card holders."

As the Guardian reports, earlier UK credit card "lenders were given two weeks to come up with a set of "fair principles" and warned that the Office for Fair Trading would be asked to investigate if they failed to agree on a plan." READ MORE

APACS, the UK payments association, on behalf of the UK credit card industry has announced "an important enhancement to well established data sharing processes to share ‘behavioural data’ on their customers’ accounts." READ MORE

APACS provided its latest quarterly statistical release on payments in the UK for the third quarter 2008. Among the highlights, APACS reported that debit card spending now accounts for 73.8% of all plastic card purchases in the UK by volume, up from 72 per cent in Q2.

APACS, the UK payments association, has announced the launch of Payment Profiles, taking a look behind the statistics of 12 separate age and gender profiles within England, Scotland and Wales to show the differences that exist when it comes to managing money. READ MORE

APACS has released its latest summary of card fraud statistics showing that total card fraud losses increased by 14 per cent in the six months to June 2008 compared with the first half of 2007. Total card fraud losses for this period were £301.7m, of which more than 40 per cent was the result of fraud outside the UK - which typically involves criminals using stolen UK card details at cash machines and retailers in countries that have yet to upgrade to chip and PIN. READ MORE

APACS has announced that more than 25 million UK-issued debit and credit cards have now been registered with MasterCard SecureCode and Verified by Visa – online payment systems that make cards more secure when shopping on the internet. According to APACS, over 1.5 million cards are being registered every month – an increase of 650% compared with two years ago. READ MORE

APACS issued a press release today responding to an earlier CPP release titled "Forecast is hot for fraud this Bank Holiday". APACS says that in the release "PP offers incorrect information when claiming that Spain and France are “… the top spots where Brits fall victim to card theft”. APACS says that its latest statistics "show that fraud in France on UK issued cards has decreased by £4.3million in two years, and France has dropped to fourth place for where fraud on our cards is committed. This is a direct result of the French introducing the same global chip and PIN system that we are using in the UK. Equally, fraud in Spain has fallen by £3.9 million since their rollout." In fact, based upon APACS 2007 fraud figures for UK-issued cards, the card fraud abroad is highest in USA (£24.6m) followed by Italy (£9.6m), Australia (£8.2m), France (£7.3m) and Spain (£5.7m). READ MORE

APACS has released its latest quarterly statistical summary of UK card payment activity.

"In the second quarter of 2008 there were 1.8 billion plastic card purchases made in the UK totalling £92.6 billion. The number of purchases was 7.8% higher than in the second quarter of 2007, and spending was 7.5% higher. Debit cards accounted for 73.4% of all plastic card purchases compared with 71.6% in the second quarter of 2007."

APACS, the UK payments association, has released figures showing that the number of adults using online banking in the UK has increased by 505% in the past seven years from less than 3.5 million in 2000 to just over 21 million last year. READ MORE

APACS has announced that £354 billion was spent on plastic cards in the UK in 2007 - a 10 percent increase over 2006 - and that spending of debit cards accounted for 62 per cent of total plastic card spend and 72 percent of total plastic card transactions. Debit cards were used to make 4.9 billion purchases in the UK while credit and charge cards were used to make 1.9 billion purchases. Credit card credit outstanding in the UK fell by £1.1 billion during 2007. READ MORE

APACS has announced the volume and value figures for the first three days’ operation of the new Faster Payments Service, launched on Tuesday, May 27. "In total, between just after midnight on Tuesday 27th May and today at 12.45pm, 318,405 faster payments have been processed to a value of £200,127,682.03. This equates to around 90,000 payments a day, 3,750 payments an hour – one every second – with an average value of over £625 per payment." READ MORE

APACS has confirmed that the infrastructure for the new Faster Payments Service is now live, with payments from midnight being processed through the new system. According to APACS, by 7 AM this morning 898 payments had been made with a value of £461,383.43. READ MORE

APACS has published new materials to help customers wishing to benefit from the new Faster Payment Service as it begins its rollout on May 27th . APACS has produced a new, downloadable advice guide, How to use the Faster Payments Service , along with an online easy-to-use sort code checker. Customers can input any UK sort code to check whether it is able to receive Faster Payments. More sort codes will be added over the next few months as the service is rolled out. All these materials are available from www.apacs.org.uk. READ MORE

APACS, the UK payments association, and ABTA, the UK travel association, have announced they've "published a consumer advice guide – Using your plastic overseas – which provides tips and useful information for holidaymakers and business travellers who will be using their cards abroad this summer." READ MORE

APACS has published its latest quarterly Statistical Release covering the first quarter of 2008. "In the first quarter of 2008 there were 1.8 billion plastic card purchases made in the UK totalling £91.1 billion. The number of purchases was 8.9% higher than in the first quarter of 2007, and spending was 8.9% higher. Debit cards accounted for 72.8% of all plastic card purchases compared with 71.1% in the first quarter of 2007."

APACS, the UK payments association, has released figures showing that the debit card retains its popularity at retailers, with spending on debit cards increasing by 11% last year. According to APACS, this increase stands in stark contrast to paper cheque spending which declined by 7.5% in terms of value and 13% by volume over the same period. Credit card spending at retailers in the UK has not grown over the last three years. READ MORE

APACS has confirmed plans for the launch of the new Faster Payments Service on May 27th. Beginning then, the FPS founding banks will be gradually implementing their own plans to deliver the new service to their customers. According to APACS, 'the new service will benefit customers by speeding up one-off payments made over the internet or by phone, reducing the current three-day clearing timescale to enable these payments to clear within hours, not days. For the very first time it will also be possible to make these payments all day every day.' READ MORE

APACS, the UK payments association, said today that 'almost 1 in 3 people don’t have any anti-spyware software on their computer' as it discussed the increasing numbers of phishing attacks in the UK and reminded consumers of the tips to help them avoid falling victim to such crimes. According to APACS, 'phishing has become far more frequent in recent months with the latest APACS data showing more than 10,000 reported phishing incidents in the first quarter of 2008 – up over 200 per cent from the same period last year.' READ MORE

APACS, the UK payments association, has announced that "donations to charitable organisations on plastic cards reached £1.013 billion in 2007- up from £842 million in 2006. This is the first time donations on plastic have gone through the £1 billion barrier."