Christmas was put on credit last year. Shoppers used their credit cards to buy £2 billion of food and drink last December, 25 per cent more than in the same month in 2006, new figures show.

Data from the Association of Payment Clearing Services (Apacs) reveal that the UK's 31.5 million credit card holders spent £32.3 billion in the last three months of 2007 - the second-highest sum on record, beaten only by the final quarter of 2004, when cheap credit card deals were more readily available.

Although some of the increased spending on food in December can be attributed to higher prices, recent figures show that the cost of food and drink has risen by only about 6 per cent in the past year, raising fears that more households are relying on credit to fund essential spending.

Chris Tapp, of Credit Action, a debt charity, said: “As household budgets are squeezed, people may start to use their credit cards to pay for shopping. This is a warning sign. While some people will be taking advantage of special credit card deals to earn points or cash back, many others will be simply using their card to put off paying the bill.”

Debt charities said that they had been experiencing record numbers of calls from people worried about their debts since mid-January, when Christmas credit card bills started to arrive. Total credit card debt increased by £300 million last year to £56.1 billion in December.

Apacs said that repayment of credit card debts, calculated by comparing repayments with the sums lent during the same period, was 96 per cent last year. This is lower than in 2006, when repayments were at 97 per cent.

Sandra Quinn, the chief executive of Apacs, said: “The repayment data is key. People are repaying more on their credit cards than they were five years ago.

“We would be really concerned if repayments had stayed at under 90 per cent like they were in 2001-02.”

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