(by M. Riley)

10% cent of credit card purchases by UK consumers now occur online, up from just 2% five years ago, and a five-fold increase since 1999, according to new figures from APACS. Payment of credit card bills online is also growing in popularity, with over 6 million (20 per cent) of all UK-based credit cardholders viewing their bill online in the second half of 2003. In total, 22 million UK consumers (72 per cent either purchase or bank online, with half doing both, and almost 13 million using Internet banking services during 2003, which proves the UK populace to be overcoming its initial Internet security fears.

Credit cards are more popular than debit cards for online use, with 71 per cent of online travel purchases made with a credit card, versus 29 per cent with a debit card. Online purchases tend to be higher in value than those made in-store, with online credit card and debit card purchases averaging a respective Stg 69 and Stg 54. By contrast, the average in-store credit card purchase was Stg 58, versus Stg 39 for debit cards. Recent Visa EU research shows Internet security concerns to deter one in five UK consumers from buying online, although UK online sales figures for Q1 2004 were more than double those for Q1 2003.

Of the UK online shoppers surveyed by Visa, most (69 per cent) said retailers should do more to make them feel secure, with over half (58 per cent) attributing web users’ reluctance to shop online, to an ‘irrational fear’ of the Internet. Most Internet users (68 per cent) believed it was unsafe to divulge credit card details online, but just 15 per cent knew someone whose credit card had been misused online. With UK acquiring banks registered for Visa’s Verified by Visa secured e-payment technology covering over 90 per cent of eCommerce transactions, Visa believes the wary Internet shoppers can be converted to online buyers.