Online credit card spending has risen five-fold during the past four years, figures showed.

The Association of Payment Clearing Services said one in ten credit card transactions took place online during the second half of last year, up from one in 50 in 1999.

At the same time, it said the average number of purchases each Internet shopper made had almost doubled since 2000, when about 6.7 million people made an average of 6.5 purchases a year.

Since then, the number of people shopping online has trebled, and people now make an average of 11.2 purchases a year.