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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，信用卡消費額達到 2，440億英鎊。付款清算服務協會發言人說：“如果包括商業卡在內，那么今年信用卡的交易總額有望超過 2，690億英鎊。”
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."
就交易的數量來說，在未來一段時間內，現金交易還是會遠遠多于信用卡交易。發言人還補充說，“現金會繼續作為小額款項的支付方式。”
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.
同時，2003年是英國電子商務走向成熟的一年。超過1, 800萬人在網上購物或接受服務，比2002年增長了50%在 2億筆交易中，使用信用卡的占69%，而剩下的部分幾乎被借記卡囊括。
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義的一年，還有另外一個原因——8年來，信用卡詐騙事件首次有所縮減。由于打擊信用卡詐騙的措施開始生效，信用卡詐騙的損失額降低了 5%，為4.02億英鎊。
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.
新一代內置電腦芯片的信用卡已經產生。今年年底，大部分人在進行面對面交易時，必須在收銀臺的鍵盤上輸入自己的4位密碼，再也不用簽署收據了。
