Executives at credit and charge card companies were handed an early Christmas gift in October after Australian credit card holders went on a shopping spree.Data collated by MWE Consulting shows that Australians boosted their aggregate spend on credit and charge cards by more than A$2 billion compared to September.The movement, which has stoked hopes of a sustained recovery in credit card activity among card issuers, represents a 7.9 per cent month-on-month increase."This was the third highest monthly result on record behind December 2016 and May 2017," said MWE principal, Mike Ebstein."Account numbers showed a glimpse of growth for the first time in six months."The turnaround in spending appeared to stabilise a long-term decline in revolve rates on credit cards.The revolve rate rose 70 basis points in October, helping the annual rate to remain steady at 61.9 per cent.While credit and charge cards still account for more than half of all card-based payments made in Australia, they are continuing to lose market share to debit cards.Spending on debit cards accounted for 46.2 per cent of purchases by card payment type in October - up from 46.1 per cent in September.In October 2016, debit cards accounted for 44.9 per cent of all card-based purchases.There was little movement in the market shares of card issuers in October, with National Australia Bank the only leading institution to boost its share of consumer card balances.NAB increased its share of balances to 11 per cent from 10.9 per cent in September.Westpac was the only leading issuer to lose ground, with its share of balances slipping 0.1 per cent to 18.5 per cent.