20yrs of debit cards
May 30, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Banking
Barclays will soon be celebrating 20 years of debit cards after it launched the UK’s first on June 3rd 1987.
The bank broke the mould when it introduced the Barclays Connect card and changed the face of banking forever.
Within nine months of its launch, one million people had a Connect card in their pocket and the debit card has gone from strength to strength ever since.
Today, around 68 million debit cards are in circulation, with many people owning more than one.
A total of 143 debit card purchases are made every second, 6.8 billion transactions take place each year and debit cards out number credit cards.
“Plastic has revolutionised the way people spend money over the last 40 years,” said Brian Cunnington, head of debit cards at Barclays.
“Ever since Barclaycard became the first credit card in Europe in 1966 the nation’s spending habits have changed.
“The introduction of debit cards 20 years later gave consumers even more flexibility allowing them to withdraw cash from ATMs as well as to have payments deducted directly from their current accounts when they paid in shops,” he added.
Debit cards have remained popular through slight changes that keep them up to date, such as the introduction of Chip and PIN technology.
