Spending on credit cards fell in the second quarter of 2009, according to the UK Payments Administration.
Both the number of purchases and the amount spent were down, by 0.1 per cent and 1.0 per cent respectively.
Michelle Slade, a spokesperson for Moneyfacts.co.uk, said that the declines in these figures were due to a number of reasons.
Low interest rates equating to reduced mortgage payments and simple caution were two of the suggestions as to why spending had gone down.
"Hopefully people have learnt the lessons from how things have been of late; hopefully we have all learnt not to get so much into debt," she said.
"There are a lot of people out there who are taking ‘words to the wise’ and maybe trying to not put so much money on their credit card and that sort of thing."
Ms Slade added that the risk of unemployment was also making people reconsider their spending habits.
Recent research from Key Retirement Solutions showed that for those pensioners with credit card debt the average owed was over £8,000.
By Alison Stephenson 
