Consumers are increasing their purchases on credit cards but continue to reduce their balances. The latest Reserve Bank credit and charge card figures show that the value of purchases in October was up 4.6 per cent on the previous month and was at its highest level for the year.However, balances accruing interest, which were an average of A$3164 per account in October, were unchanged from the previous month and have fallen from an average of $3235 in October last year.The number of credit and charge card purchases has increased sharply in recent months. Consumers used their cards 168.2 million times in October - up 4.7 per cent on the previous months and up almost 20 per cent on February, when transaction numbers hit a low of 140.6 million.The average number of transactions on each credit card in October was 11. This compares with an average of 7.9 transactions on debit cards.