Households are racking up credit card debt by putting everyday expenses including groceries and utility bills on plastic.

As the nation’s credit card bill sits at a staggering $51.3 billion consumers are using plastic just to complete their weekly supermarket shops and pay their utility bills with many people failing to wipe their debt each month.

New statistics revealed by financial comparison website finder.com.au which quizzed more than 2000 Australians showed groceries account for about 25 per cent of all credit card spending, followed by utitily bills (16 per cent), general shopping (16 per cent) and entertainment (10 per cent.)

People are putting themselves under financial pressure by paying for daily expenses on credit cards and failing to pay off the debt in full each month. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

Consumer finance expert Lisa Montgomery warned as shoppers continue to shift away from paying with cash, more consumers are paying with plastic which made it more difficult to monitor spending.

“Consumers have made almost a full transition to cashless transactions and this has naturally included the weekly grocery bill,’’ she said.

“The downside of this is that when you spend on a card, it’s easy to overspend as you are not limited by a cash amount in your wallet.”

Consumer finance expert Lisa Montgomery said the demise of cash means consumers find it harder to keep track of the money they are spending. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

Data from global research firm RFi’s Global Payments Evolution Study showed the decline of cash is continuing in Australia with about 40 per cent of Australians envisaging a cashless society to become a reality.

While some card customers use their credit card and manage to pay it off in full each month to escape any interest charges, the nation still has more than $32.1 billion in card debt that is accruing interest.

The average credit card rate is about 17 per cent but some card rates are as a high as almost 30 per cent.

Finder.com.au spokeswoman Bessie Hassan said credit card pain was continuing to be felt by consumers racking up debt just to buying food.

Finder.com.au spokeswoman Bessie Hassan said people are carrying too much credit card debt. Picture: TwitterSource:Twitter

“Groceries are already expensive enough without having to paying interest on them,’’ she said.

“The average Australian credit card has $3095 in credit card debt, 63 per cent of which is burdened with accruing interest.”

Ms Montgomery encourages consumers to set a budget for their weekly grocery shop and review monthly credit card statements to see where they can reduce their spending on plastic.