Two markers of a long-term shift in the pattern of the payments market are evident in the monthly payment card data for February 2011 compiled by the Reserve Bank of Australia, with the diminishing role for credit cards prominent. Purchases made with personal credit cards are down to 50.1 per cent of all purchases made with payment cards (measured on an annual basis), MWE Consulting notes in its monthly analysis of the RBA data. This share seems likely to slip further given the secular shift to payment by debit card. Over the last five years, debit has gained 680 basis points of market share of the overall payments card market, Mike Ebstein, principal of MWE wrote in the report. Personal credit cards conceded 640 basis points of market share and charge, and commercial cards conceded 40 bps. MWE put the market share of debit cards at February 2011 at 38.2 per cent. The charge card share (which is overwhelmingly American Express) is 11.6 per cent. While making payments with credit cards is, relatively speaking, less popular than it was, making use of available credit limits has become more popular of late. The revolve rate - the ratio of credit card customers with balances accruing interest as a percentage of credit card advance - is now at an all time high (measured on an annual basis) of 73.3 per cent. Between 2003 and 2008, the average annual revolve rate increased by ninety basis points, Ebstein noted in the report. Over the past 12 months, the increase almost equalled that at eighty basis points.