Plastic accounted for £244bn of spending in 2003. "This year, total plastic card use, if business card usage is included, is expected to top £269bn." said the spokesman for the Association for payment Clearing Services.
2003年,信用卡消费额达到 2,440亿英镑。付款清算服务协会发言人说:“如果包括商业卡在内,那么今年信用卡的交易总额有望超过 2,690亿英镑。”
In terms of numbers of transactions, cash will remain much bigger than plastic for some time to come, he added. "Cash will always remain there for low-value payments."
就交易的数量来说,在未来一段时间内,现金交易还是会远远多于信用卡交易。发言人还补充说,“现金会继续作为小额款项的支付方式。”
Meanwhile, 2003 was the year that e-commerce "came of age" in the UK. More than 18 million people bought goods or services online, up 50% compared to 2002. Credit cards accounted for 69% of the 200 million transactions, with debit cards mopping up most of the remainder.
同时,2003年是英国电子商务走向成熟的一年。超过1, 800万人在网上购物或接受服务,比2002年增长了50%在 2亿笔交易中,使用信用卡的占69%,而剩下的部分几乎被借记卡囊括。
Last year was a landmark year for another reason-the first reduction in card fraud for eight years. Fraud losses on plastic cards fell by 5% to £402 million as measures to combat crooks started to take effect.
去年之所以是具有里程碑意义的一年,还有另外一个原因——8年来,信用卡诈骗事件首次有所缩减。由于打击信用卡诈骗的措施开始生效,信用卡诈骗的损失额降低了 5%,为4.02亿英镑。
A new generation of cards containing computer chips is being introduced, and by the end of this year most people making face-to-face purchases will have to type their four-digit Pin number into keypads at tills and will no longer have to sign receipts.
新一代内置电脑芯片的信用卡已经产生。今年年底,大部分人在进行面对面交易时,必须在收银台的键盘上输入自己的4位密码,再也不用签署收据了。