Stimulus cash leads to rise in credit card repayments

An increase in credit card usage has been driven by the government's financial stimulus measures, an industry expert claims.

Speaking at the International Consumer Credit Card Summit held in Sydney, Eddie Grobler, executive vice-president for MasterCard in Australasia, points out that not only has expenditure on cards increased since the economic recovery plan started last year, but repayments on outstanding balances have also gone up.

He adds that the stimulus measures have assisted Australian credit card issuers to manage through the global downturn at a time when others have experienced greater problems, the Australian Associated Press reports.

"What many other countries are seeing as a rapid decline in their business, we at worst see as a slowdown in the rate of our credit," Mr Grobler states.

Such claims come as research from the Reserve Bank of Australia revealed that a total of $18.78 billion dollars was spent on credit cards in March, which is not only an increase of more than $1.6 billion from February but also the second successive monthly rise recorded.

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