Agents recorded a 2.5% year-on-year uptick in spending in July according to Barclays' latest Consumer Spend Report. This follows a 1.9% uptick in June, which saw agents return to growth following three months of conflict in the Middle East.

It was another busy month for the trade, with agents handling 5.7% more transactions this July than they did last July, although this growth in transactions was slightly slower than the 8.5% jump from June 2025 to June 2026.

Spending on hotels, resorts and accommodation also went up by 2.6% year-on-year in July, building on a 1.7% uptick in June. However, by contrast, spending with airlines fell by 6% year-on-year in July, which followed a 5.4% dip in June.

Barclays said spending landscape suggested holidaymakers are prioritising staycations over trips abroad "amid ongoing travel uncertainty, while making the most of higher UK temperatures".

Overall, spending on travel fell by 0.3% year-on-year in July, a slight decline from June's 0.1% dip but essentially flat when compared with drops of -3.3% in March, -5.7% in April and -5.8% in May at the height of the war in Iran.

The Barclays data captures consumer card spending during the period from 20 June 2026 to 23 July 2026 and compares it with the corresponding data from 21 June 2025 to 24 July 2025. The bank claims to see nearly 40% of the nation's credit and debit card transactions via its issuing and acquiring businesses.

Turning a corner?

Consumer card spending as a whole grew by 2% year-on-year in July following a 1.9% uptick in June; non-essential spending, specifically, went up by 1.6% in July, while face-to-face spending, encouragingly, went up by 2.2% year-on-year.

Accompanying consumer research carried out in late July, based on a representative survey of 2,000 UK consumers, also found people's confidence in the state of their finances and of the economy is on the up.

Three in 10 respondents said they were confident in the state of the UK economy, a 21-month high, while more than a third (35%) said they were confident about the strength of Europe's economy – the highest level recorded since Barclays began tracking this measure more than a decade ago.

There were also improvements in people's confidence in their job security, now at its highest level this year, and their ability to spend on non-essentials.

Rohan Kumar, Head of Spend Insights at Barclays, said: “Card spending strengthened further in July, reaching its highest level for 12 months, with both essential and non-essential spend remaining in growth.

"Multiple factors played a part, with UK staycations, continued warm weather and England’s World Cup run lifting spending on travel, hospitality, everyday essentials and seasonal retail categories.”