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plastic is used in the city and on the Costa than other areas of the province06.02.09 - 18:31 -
SHOPPING. Nearly 40 per cent of all purchases are made with a credit card. / JOSELE LANZA
Do you want to pay in cash?” The answer is more and more likely to be no, even in smaller businesses. The latest survey carried out by the Observatorio del Comercio Minorista (a watchdog organisation for commerce) in the province of Malaga has revealed an increase in the use of plastic to pay for goods.
The city of Malaga is the area where the largest proportion of purchases are made with a credit card in the province (39.8%), followed closely behind by the Costa del Sol (37.6%). That is, two out of five shoppers rarely uses cash.
The use of plastic increases in the bigger municipalities while the figures for the Antequera district and the Axarquía are much lower: 20.2% and 23.4% respectively.
As to be expected shopping habits change with age, as do forms of payment. Nine out of ten people over the age of 64 prefer to use cash, while credit cards are more popular among the 25 to 39 age group.
Less credit available
The President of the Association of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses in Marbella and San Pedro (Apymen), Antonio Núñez, predicts that “cash will soon have disappeared altogether”. He does warn though that the use of credit cards increases the risk of customers getting too much in debt. Nevertheless this is perhaps more difficult in the present financial situation as banks are paying close attention to customers’ income and expenses before issuing credit cards and are controlling and even cutting credit limits.
The trend towards more plastic and less cash is even being noted in traditional small businesses. “Some shops are still reluctant to have a card reader installed”, explained Enrique Gil, president of Fecoma the Malaga Federation of Commerce. “We can’t understand why, as they are 40 years behind the times”, adds Gil.
Behind this reluctance are the commissions that banks charge for the use of the card service, sometimes as much as two per cent. In this case the experts encourage shopkeepers to negotiate terms with their banks. “While they do keep back so much per cent, normally this is negotiable, depending on the bank’s relationship with the client”, admits the president of Fecoma.
In Marbella and San Pedro, for example Apymen has an agreement with Unicaja to offer better conditions for members, with commissions down to 0.8 per cent.
“Traders often bear these commissions in mind when pricing items, so as not to lose out, although with fierce competition from large stores this is not the time to be pricing up”, adds Antonio Núñez.
