Spending on credit cards and charge cards fell two per cent to $17.1 billion in March 2008 from February. Balances dropped by half a percentage point to $43.0 billion in March, according to the monthly data published by the Reserve Bank of Australia yesterday.Michael Ebstein, principal of MWE Consulting, who publishes reviews of the RBA data each month, wrote yesterday that the decline in spend and balances would have been influenced by the early Easter "but is nevertheless considered to be a subdued result."Plenty of credit market indicators are reflecting the turn in the cycle, thanks to restrictive monetary policy and the impact of the global credit crunch. These trends are now emerging clearly in the credit card data.Ebstein wrote that the revolve rate (the proportion of customers paying interest on their credit card balances) edged back to 72.0 per cent at March 2008 (based on 12-month data) and increased more markedly, to 72.6 per cent, based on monthly data.An early Easter may have inflated the revolve rate, though it's less clear the timing of the holiday would wear the blame on the spending data.