Women control £400 million more expenditure than men each week

British women’s purchasing power now extends to choosing cars, holidays and home technology

A new report from Visa UK, released today, has found that British women are gaining ground in the battle over the purse strings, as their purchasing power has moved beyond the traditional domestic spheres of clothes and groceries to choosing cars, home technology items and holidays.

The study found that since the 1990s, women's autonomy in financial decision making has increased by over 30% (from 9% to 12.5%), whilst men's has diminished by 20% over the same period.

In addition to spending an extra £120 million a week more than men on clothes and controlling 68% of all grocery spending (£1.16 billion), women now have more than twice as much control as their partner in choosing holidays (18% compared to 7%) and home improvements (34% compared to 17%).

Visa's report also found that whilst previous generations split spending decisions according to gender stereotypes, today's couples are far more likely to make the main purchasing decisions in their household budget together. 69% of couples now have an equal say in choosing a mortgage, and 51% on selecting household insurance.

The top five types of items purchased whereby both partners have an equal say are:

• Holidays (75%)
• Mortgage/Re-mortgage (69%)
• Home Technology (59%)
• Household insurance (51%)
• Car (51%)

According to Fiona Wilkinson, Senior Vice President, Communications at Visa UK:

"Visa's report found that women in the UK emerge as one of the most assertive nationalities, when compared with other European countries. UK women appear to be one of three European nations (along with France and Sweden) where women claim to make their own decisions about what to do with their own money. Couples in other countries are either equally split or report that men are more likely to make their own decisions than women.

Fiona Wilkinson continues:

"Another emerging trend identified in the report is an increasing independence among young couples. 61% believe they can spend any disposable income independently of their partner, after they have jointly made the big purchasing decisions - be it the mortgage or insurance- together. Three quarters of couples aged 18-24 function in this way."

It emerges that women still rule when it comes to large one-off spending sprees- with over double as many women getting their way when it comes to an occasional expensive household purchase. The tenacious woman shopper is hard to deter when she knows what she wants!

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Notes to editors:

The fieldwork for Visa's report was conducted by Research Now using online interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,004 adults aged 16+ in this study was sourced from Future Foundation Changing Lives data, Future Foundation Changing Lives in Europe data, Eurobarometer and the Expenditure and Food Survey.

The definition of "Consumer spending" used in this study accounts for 65% of total expenditure recorded in the Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS). This categorisation excludes certain spending recorded in the EFS as consumer choice does not necessarily apply to some markets such as utilities, rent payments and leisure.

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In Europe there are over 308 million Visa debit, credit and commercial cards. In the 12 months ending in March 2006 those cards were used to make purchases and cash withdrawals to the value of over €1.17 trillion. Visa is one o the world's leading payment brands with 1.4 billion cards generating €3.41 trillion ($USD 4.14 trillion) in annual card sales volume.

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