Dip in credit card spending in April, particularly on travel, suggests Britons preparing for harder times amid Iran war fallout
Households cut back on their spending in April at the fastest pace in 18 months, as the conflict in the Middle East provoked fears of another cost of living crisis, a report from one of the UK’s biggest banks has suggested.
Barclays, which processes nearly 40% of the UK’s credit and debit card transactions, said its data showed there had been a 0.1% fall in card spending last month compared with a year earlier. This was the first year-on-year fall since November 2024.

Barclays, which processes nearly 40% of the UK’s credit and debit card transactions, said its data showed there had been a 0.1% fall in card spending last month compared with a year earlier. Meanwhile dip in credit card spending in April, particularly on travel, suggests Britons preparing for harder times amid Iran war.
So the bottom line is dip in credit card spending in April, particularly on travel, suggests Britons preparing for harder times amid Iran war. Wonder how this will land.
The bigger issue here is dip in credit card spending in April, particularly on travel, suggests Britons preparing for harder times amid Iran war. That changes the calculation.
On one hand dip in credit card spending in April, particularly on travel, suggests Britons preparing for harder times amid Iran war. But at the same time barclays, which processes nearly 40% of the UK’s credit and debit card transactions, said its data showed there had been a 0.1% fall in card spending last month compared with a year earlier.
Basically dip in credit card spending in April, particularly on travel, suggests Britons preparing for harder times amid Iran war. What matters is whether anything changes because of it.
So the bottom line is barclays, which processes nearly 40% of the UK’s credit and debit card transactions, said its data showed there had been a 0.1% fall in card spending last month compared with a year earlier. Wonder how this will land.
What stands out is barclays, which processes nearly 40% of the UK’s credit and debit card transactions, said its data showed there had been a 0.1% fall in card spending last month compared with a year earlier. That is the part worth paying attention to.
What stands out is dip in credit card spending in April, particularly on travel, suggests Britons preparing for harder times amid Iran war. That is the part worth paying attention to.
Reading that barclays, which processes nearly 40% of the UK’s credit and debit card transactions, said its data showed there had been a 0.1% fall in card spending last month compared with a year earlier — hard to argue with the logic there.
Considering barclays, which processes nearly 40% of the UK’s credit and debit card transactions, said its data showed there had been a 0.1% fall in card spending last month compared with a year earlier, it raises some real questions about what happens next.
In other words dip in credit card spending in April, particularly on travel, suggests Britons preparing for harder times amid Iran war. Curious to see how this develops.
18 months is hard to ignore, no matter which side you are on.
In other words barclays, which processes nearly 40% of the UK’s credit and debit card transactions, said its data showed there had been a 0.1% fall in card spending last month compared with a year earlier. Curious to see how this develops.
If dip in credit card spending in April, particularly on travel, suggests Britons preparing for harder times amid Iran war, then the bigger picture starts to look very different.
The bigger issue here is barclays, which processes nearly 40% of the UK’s credit and debit card transactions, said its data showed there had been a 0.1% fall in card spending last month compared with a year earlier. That changes the calculation.