Britons 'spend £5.25 trillion on credit cards'
The combined amount that UK residents will spend on their credit cards during their lives is likely to reach £5.25 trillion, new research says.According to life assistance company CPP the average amount that individual Britons will spend on plastic in their lifetimes is £157,530.Today's survey shows that on average, people shell out £3,540 on holidays, cars, clothes, shopping, bills and entertainment on a yearly basis.But 28 per cent of people also used credit cards for everyday purchases like lunch, petrol and foodOne in 20 of the 2,500 respondents told CPP that they were dependent on their credit cards to sustain shopping addictions, with the average user owning three cards and 14 per cent admitting they thought it looked impressive to have a wallet filled with credit cards.Zoe Manton, head of card protection at the firm, sounded a note of caution over the statistic that four out of five credit card owners are worried about identity theft, warning that "highly organised criminal gangs" were a constant danger.She added that the fact that Britons get through an average of 59 credit cards over their lifetimes increased the likelihood of them being a victim of identity fraud.
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