It appears that Britons have left the “buy now pay later” mentality behind, in response to the credit crunch. Credit card users, were realising that they could not continually put major expenses on their credit cards, then “foot the bill” later. However they were said to still be using credit cards to pay for smaller everyday expenses.

The high street bank, Halifax has found that consumers are no longer living the 'buy now pay later' lifestyle that they once were, and are changing their spending habits in line with the moving economy, when it came to the cost of last year’s Christmas season.

Buy-now-pay-later, no longer

After examining Britons’ shifting spending habits, Halifax found that more than 70 per cent of consumers will be paying for last year’s Christmas in cash through this year; with a third using their credit card and one in 10 using a store card. Only five per cent will take out a loan to pay for Christmas spending.

Mike Regnier, head of banking at Halifax said: "It's encouraging to see that more consumers are becoming prudent with their finances this year by choosing to use their savings, monthly income and cash to pay for their Christmas purchases, rather than opting for costly store cards which could see them paying out more in the long run."

According to further research from Sainsbury’s credit card, around 7.55 million credit card holders were found to prefer to use credit cards, rather than cash, to pay for items that cost £20 or less. The high street bank, Halifax also noted however, that Britons were using cash, rather than credit cards to pay or their Christmas expenses, last year.

The everyday credit card spenders were found to be splurging out a total of £3.64billion on their credit cards every month, an average of £483 for the average cardholder, but some were said to be spending upwards of £750 each month.

Card users’ forgone benefits

Sainsbury's has also found that about half of these card users are wasting the opportunity to be earning rewards on their credit card spending, with as many as 12 million people missing out on valuable rewards.

Therefore, around £1.76billion worth of credit card spending goes unrewarded each month, according to the research, when they could be reaping the benefits of cashback credit cards.

Donald MacLeod, head of Sainsbury's credit cards said: "Although we'd never advocate people using their credit cards for everyday inexpensive purchases if they are likely to incur interest, we've identified a number of people who clearly like to use their credit card in the same way as they would cash or debit cards and who pay off their balances each month."

He also added: "Unfortunately, recent research reveals that one in two credit card users do not see any financial benefit as their cards don't offer any financial rewards. In truth, there are fewer credit cards offering any form of financial reward linked to the amount of money spent on the card today, compared with four years ago, meaning there's no better time to switch to a card that gives you something back."