Almost two-thirds of consumers opted to use their debit cards when making a plastic card payment last year, according to a new survey.
Research by Apacs has shown that total spending at merchants, retailers and service providers in the UK reached £354 billion in 2007 and for the 7th year in a row, debit cards accounted for the majority of it.
About 4.9 billion purchases were made using debit cards and it is expected that they will account for nine billion transactions by 2017.
Sandra Quinn, director of communications at Apacs, said: "Over the past three years we've seen a pattern emerge: debit cards have increasingly become consumers' first choice over other options, such as cash, cheques and credit cards."
Ms Quinn added that debit cards are also becoming more popular for spending on the internet, where people have traditionally used credit cards more often.
The European Payments Council has announced a new initiative which it says will improve the service for customers making mobile payments in the single euro payments area (Sepa).
