Credit card debt rises as repayments fall

SHOPPERS racked up $43.25 billion on credit and charge cards in February, as repayments fell 7.9 per cent.

Credit card debt rises as repayments fall

AUSTRALIANS' love affair with plastic credit continued in February, as they racked up higher debt levels and slackened off in repayments.

Although data released this month suggested consumers were becoming increasingly pessismistic about the state of the economy and intended to rein in their spending, they were still swipe-happy as little as two months ago.

Data released today by the Reserve Bank shows credit card balances hit $43.25 billion in February, up from $42.3 billion in January.

While spending was higher, cardholders were less inclined to pay down their debt. Repayments fell to $16.8 billion in February, from $18.2 billion the previous month. This left cardholders facing a total of $31.03 billion of debt accruing interest, up from $30.6 billion in January.

While the value of transactions rose in February, the volume of both cash advances and purchases fell for the month. There were 2.8 million cash advances for the month, down from 2989, and 109 million purchases, down from 115 million the previous month.