Many people are deciding to borrow in terms of what they can afford rather than what they have to pay back.

Neil Munroe, external affairs director at Equifax, revealed that consumers are also worrying about their job security, which could impact their financial attitudes.

"Maybe there is an expectation that their job may not be as secure as it was and therefore people don’t want to be caught out with no job and [high] borrowing still," commented Mr Munroe.

This, he believes, could be one of the reasons debit cards have seen a surge in popularity as people choose to use them as a "vehicle for payment as opposed to a vehicle for borrowing".

Apacs – the UK payments association, recently revealed that at the start of the year plastic card spending was up 5.4 per cent compared to the first quarter of last year, reaching a total of £94.2 billion.

Furthermore, spending on credit cards in the first quarter of 2009 fell by three per cent compared to the same period last year, whereas spending on debit cards grew by four per cent.