Plastic accounted for ￡244bn of spending in 2003. "This year, total plastic card use, if business card usage is included, is expected to top ￡269bn." said the spokesman for the Association for payment Clearing Services.
2003年，信用卡消费额达到 2，440亿英镑。付款清算服务协会发言人说：“如果包括商业卡在内，那么今年信用卡的交易总额有望超过 2，690亿英镑。”
In terms of numbers of transactions, cash will remain much bigger than plastic for some time to come, he added. "Cash will always remain there for low-value payments."
就交易的数量来说，在未来一段时间内，现金交易还是会远远多于信用卡交易。发言人还补充说，“现金会继续作为小额款项的支付方式。”
Meanwhile, 2003 was the year that e-commerce "came of age" in the UK. More than 18 million people bought goods or services online, up 50% compared to 2002. Credit cards accounted for 69% of the 200 million transactions, with debit cards mopping up most of the remainder.
同时，2003年是英国电子商务走向成熟的一年。超过1, 800万人在网上购物或接受服务，比2002年增长了50%在 2亿笔交易中，使用信用卡的占69%，而剩下的部分几乎被借记卡囊括。
Last year was a landmark year for another reason-the first reduction in card fraud for eight years. Fraud losses on plastic cards fell by 5% to ￡402 million as measures to combat crooks started to take effect.
去年之所以是具有里程碑意义的一年，还有另外一个原因——8年来，信用卡诈骗事件首次有所缩减。由于打击信用卡诈骗的措施开始生效，信用卡诈骗的损失额降低了 5%，为4.02亿英镑。
A new generation of cards containing computer chips is being introduced, and by the end of this year most people making face-to-face purchases will have to type their four-digit Pin number into keypads at tills and will no longer have to sign receipts.
新一代内置电脑芯片的信用卡已经产生。今年年底，大部分人在进行面对面交易时，必须在收银台的键盘上输入自己的4位密码，再也不用签署收据了。