According to data released by Credit Action, the financial charity, the level of UK credit card debt is rising more slowly this year, compared to last. As the effects of the global financial crisis begin to filter through to the economy, consumers have reduced their dependence upon plastic, or adopted a debt management strategy that will allow them to keep their finances under control.

The figures released by Credit Action show that personal debt in the UK increased by £1,000,000 every 77 minutes during May this year. Although this seem like a large increase to the man on the street, this is well down on the increases that we saw at the beginning of 2008. In January last year, it only took 5.3 minutes for total personal debt to increase by the same amount.

There are a number of reasons for this decline in credit card spending. UK consumers, that have been suffering the effects of the recession, have been more interested in ways to get out of debt than they have of getting into more of it. Consumers with out of control debt problems are now turning to specialists for help and assistance in order to get back on track.

In addition to this, credit card companies and finance providers have considerably tightened their lending criteria in the wake of criticism that loans were issued irresponsibly in the past.

The reduction in credit card spending does not mean that we now owe less to the banks. On the contrary, according to Credit Action, and the Bank of England, £300 million more consumer credit was taken during May than was repaid, and of that, £200 million was taken out on credit cards.