BERMUDA credit card holders paid much more with plastic during the recent holiday period than they did during the same time the year before, according to figures revealed by one of the island's major banks yesterday.

Butterfield Bank said its customers spent 13.8 per cent more this Christmas with their credit cards and ten per cent more using debit cards.

But fears that the bumper credit card bills landing in mailboxes this month would have a sting in the tail from new US guidelines requiring higher minimum payments on balances are unfounded.

US media have reported that some cardholders will see their minimum payment double from two per cent of the principal to four per cent ? but Butterfield Bank stated yesterday that the change would not affect its card-holding clients.

The substantial increase in card payments may not be entirely due to people actually spending more on Christmas this year.

Susan Mylehreest, vice-president of electronic banking with Butterfield Bank, cautioned against drawing conclusions from the fact that people were spending more with their cards.

"These amounts tend to grow a bit every year, but it could just be that people are using cheques less, or that they used their cards more than usual to earn air miles," Ms Mylehreest said.

The theory that Bermuda residents spent more is, however, backed up by a second indicator ? the 12.7 per cent increase in the amount of cash in circulation.

The Bermuda Monetary Authority's (BMA) Christmas money supply figures showed that $113.6 million in notes and coins was in circulation ahead of the holiday, compared to $100.8 million last year.

Ms Mylehreest said Butterfield Bank customers should expect no changes as a consequence of any new US regulations on minimum payments.

"In the past five to ten years, we have watched with some horror as a lot of US card issuers have reduced their minimum payments," Ms Mylehreest said.

"For example, someone who holds a credit card and owes $5,000 at an interest rate of 18 per cent will never pay it off if they are paying minimum payments of one per cent.

"They would not even be paying the interest ? which works out at one-and-a-half per cent a month.

"Some issuers have been acting unscrupulously and are obviously picking on those at the low end of the socio-economic scale, people who can't pay off their balance and will never make a dent in their credit card bill."

In demanding a rise in minimum payments, US authorities had closed a loophole in the regulations, Ms Mylehreest added.

"At Butterfield Bank, we have always taken a very conservative view," she continued. "Our minimum payment requirement is four per cent ? three per cent of the capital repayment and one-and-a-half per cent in interest."

The US does not have jurisdiction over Bermuda credit cards regulations, even though some of the major issuers are based in the US. Repayment policy is set by the banks and not by card issuers, Ms Mylehreest added. Going into the holiday period, the average US family owed $9,300 in credit-card debt, according to the Dallas-based Consumer Credit Counselling Service, an increase of 115 per cent over the last ten years.