The number of payment cards being issued in Malta is increasing at more than four times the rate in the EU but it seems that while the Maltese are becoming quite used to debit cards, they remain averse to credit cards.

The number of cards in Malta increased by 22.8 per cent between 2010 and 2014, compared to the EU which only saw numbers rise by five per cent.

However, out of the 837,000 cards held by Maltese by 2014, 651,000 of them are debit cards.

In fact, the number of debit cards increased by 28 per cent, while that of credit cards is still at the low rate of 7.6 per cent.

The number of cards held by the Maltese was 1.97 cards per capita, compared to the EU average of 1.5 cards. The amounts vary by member state, with Luxembourg having 3.9 cards per capita, and Bulgaria, for example, having just one.

The amount paid by credit cards is higher per card as opposed to debit cards, with the Maltese using their credit cards to pay €2,833 on average every year and their debit cards to pay an average of €1,076.

Maltese use their debit cards to pay an average of €1,076 per year, and their credit cards to pay €2,833

Neverthless, the payment methods used by the Maltese go against the European trends. Efforts to reduce cheque usage have been stunningly ineffective, with the European Central Bank reporting that the use of cheques actually crept up again to 9.7 million transactions in 2014, after dipping to 7.6 million in 2012.

Central Bank governor Josef Bonnici said last April that the costs linked to electronic transfers were subsidising the prevalent cheque and cash culture, which came without charges and was more expensive to maintain.

“The solution should not be imposing a charge on cheques but reducing the charges on electronic transfers,” he said, urging domestic banks to “move with the times” by reducing the costs of transactions.

Last year, the Consumer and Competition Authority made a number of recommendations to address the lack of competition and the high charges in the banking sector.