Nearly two-thirds of Christmas shopping will be paid for with plastic cards, reports Apacs.

Research by the UK payments association found that shoppers will spend £22.4 billion on debit cards and £11.7 billion on credit cards during December.

Sandra Quinn, director of communications for Apacs, said: "Whether buying the turkey or stocking fillers, we're most likely to be using our debit card to pay for them this Christmas."

These results support an "ongoing trend" of people preferring to pay with debit cards rather than on credit cards, she commented.

Online shopping is the exception, she added, as credit cards offer more protection for goods bought over the internet.

The association expects UK consumers to spend £53 billion during December, an increase of 4.2 per cent on the same period in 2006. Ten per cent is predicted to be on online purchases.

Retailers make around 60 per cent of their annual turnover between November and December, reports Credit Action.

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