As the summer wanes and thoughts turn to paying off hefty holiday bills for two weeks in the sun, few will relish the arrival of their next credit card statement. About half of all credit card holders do not clear their account each month - and the interest charges to be paid on outstanding debts are far above those for ordinary loans.

Irish issuers typically charge interest on standard cards at an annual percentage rate (APR) between 18.9 and 24.43 each year. With a comparable figure for short-term bank loans generally standing at about 10 per cent, there's no doubt that credit card holders pay premium rates for their loans.

However, the plastic credit market continues to grow rapidly.

Although the number of individual cards in issue has remained relatively static at about 1.3 million since 1995, account holders are using their cards more and more. In the booming economy, the demand for plastic credit is reaching unprecedented levels.

In 1995, there were 37 million credit card transactions, worth £1.8 billion (€2.29 billion), according to the Irish Bankers' Federation. In 1998, this increased to 42.5 million transactions valued at £2.4 billion, the federation estimates. Annual credit card spending increased by 300 per cent since 1991, when transactions worth £800 million were recorded.

"If you look at five years ago, our average card holder used their card maybe 30 times a year," said a senior spokesman for the credit card division at AIB. "But now it's over 50. This is as a result of people switching from cash and cheques."

High interest charges and, in some cases, stiff annual fees are clearly not holding customers back.

And further growth is expected. "The percentage of adult population with a card in Ireland is in the low 20s," said the AIB spokesman. "The UK is far higher. We still have a long way to go. I would say it could go to the mid-30s. After that, it might not go higher."

Asked if the introduction of the Laser debit card in 1996 had influenced card holder behaviour, he said: "If Laser wasn't there, it [the credit card market] might have grown faster, but certainly it's still growing."

It is believed that the US issuer MBNA, which pitches its APR charges below those of most Irish issuers, has wooed some 50,000 card holders since launching here in March 1997. Ulster Bank and National Irish Bank are believed to have about a similar number of cards in issue.

The dominant issuers are still Bank of Ireland and AIB Bank, which have an estimated 1 million cards in issue between them.

AIB and Ulster Bank denied that they had lost card holders to MBNA.

"I can't say they've taken from us," said the AIB spokesman. "I'd say many of these are new cards they've recruited. Our card base has grown in double-digit percentages in the two years they've been here."

"While the arrival of new issuers will always affect a marketplace, we have no evidence that we are losing market share at present or that we have done in recent years," said an Ulster Bank spokeswoman.

MBNA targets card holders who pay interest on bank-held accounts by offering a low APR rate of 9.9 on debts transferred from another credit card account for the first six months of the life of an MBNA account.

The company said there was room for further growth in the Irish market. According to MBNA's head of business development, Mr Andrew Luckin, the market "is quite similar to the UK but I think perhaps that we have some way to go to catch up".

He said potential areas for development included the affinity card market - in which a certain percentage of each card transaction goes to a charity, college or club - and the co-branded market, where card holders accumulate points on each transaction which are eventually traded in for a discount at a retailer.

The AIB spokesman said much of the growth was being fuelled by younger, better-educated workers who were earning good salaries.

He conceded that MBNA "have brought attention to APRs and this has led to lower APRs in response".

For all that, most card holders are still paying annual interest charges of more than 20 per cent.

Many wonder how to lighten the dreaded load when faced with an autumnal bill for fun in the summer at a time when back-to-school expenses are at their heaviest.

The advice from the Consumers' Association of Ireland is simple. "It's always best to shop around," said Mr Dermot Jewell, chief executive. "If they [customers] don't search out the best possible [interest] rate, they're stuck with the rate from their bank, which may not be the cheapest.

"The difficulty is that if somebody runs up a bill that they cannot afford, that's usually when the problems start. People either exceed their credit limit or they're unable to make a payment.

"If they anticipate that they're going to be in a serious situation, what they should do is instantly stop using the card."

In such a case, the standard advice is to take out a short-term bank loan - with cheaper interest fees - and pay off the balance on the credit card immediately. "With lower interest on loans for the short term it's possible. People should source the loan at the best possible rate," said Mr Jewell.

As for shopping around, there are many options. Though most customers take out a credit card account with their own bank or building society, there is nothing to stop them opening a standalone credit card account elsewhere. Assuming that potential card holders are creditworthy, banks rarely refuse new customers.