The credit and charge card market has hit new lows, with the lowest number of personal accounts recorded since 2010 and account balances at their lowest level since 2009.
According to the latest Reserve Bank payments data, the number of outstanding personal credit and charge card accounts stood at 13.8 million in January 2020 - down 6 per cent over 12 months.
Account balances fell 5.7 per cent to A$42.7 billion over the same period. Balances accruing interest were down 9.6 per cent over the year.
MWE Consulting's report on the data says credit and charge card spend fell by $4.4 billion in January, compared with the previous month. Over the 12 months spending was up just 2.9 per cent.
MWE says debit has a 50.4 per cent share of the value of all card payments and a 71.4 per cent share of transaction volumes.