Dip in credit card spending in April, particularly on travel, suggests Britons preparing for harder times amid Iran war fallout
Households cut back on their spending in April at the fastest pace in 18 months, as the conflict in the Middle East provoked fears of another cost of living crisis, a report from one of the UK’s biggest banks has suggested.
Barclays, which processes nearly 40% of the UK’s credit and debit card transactions, said its data showed there had been a 0.1% fall in card spending last month compared with a year earlier. This was the first year-on-year fall since November 2024.
The bank, which analyses the hundreds of millions of transactions made on its debit and credit cards each month, said non-essential spending fell by 0.3% as consumers cut back on discretionary spending.
Travel spending fell by 5.7% in April, after a 3.3% decrease in March, with airlines down 8.3%, while spending on eating and drinking flatlined in April.
