One in ten credit card holders use their cards every day, claims Abbey.

More than half - 54 per cent - pay for goods with their credit cards once a week and 35 per cent use them once a month or less, the bank's research reveals.

Over 60 per cent of people with credit cards use them for shopping on the internet and 55 per cent paid for high-street purchases with them.

"There is no one way that people use their credit card and we see as many different spending patterns as there are people," said Roger Lovering, managing director of Abbey Credit Cards.

The study also found that 57 per cent of cardholders pay off the balance every month, 72 per cent 'regularly' pay it off and three per cent 'rarely' do so.

Apacs payment service reports that there are more credit cards in the UK than people. By the end of 2006 it claims there were 74.4 million credit and charge cards compared to 60 million people.

© Adfero Ltd