The shift in payment preference from credit and charge to debit appears to have stalled, with the latest Reserve Bank payment data, released yesterday, showing debit's share of purchases flattened in August.According to MWE Consulting's analysis of the data, debit card transactions accounted for 36.9 per cent of the value of payments in August, unchanged from July. Over the 12 months to August debit card share of payments rose 90 basis points from 36 to 36.9 per cent. In the two years before that, debit's share of payments had risen strongly from 32 to 36 per cent.Credit and charge card spend was up by $852 million to $20.7 billion in August, representing strong month-on-month growth of 4.3 per cent. The increase over the 12 months to August was 9.3 per cent.Credit and charge card balances declined by 30 basis points from $47.8 to $47.6 billion. According to MW, this was the result of an increase in the repayment rate.Compared to the 4.3 per cent increase in credit and charge card purchases in August, debit card purchases were up by 3.1 per cent. Over the 12 months to August purchases on debit were up 13.4 per cent.The average credit limit on a credit or charge card is $8984, up 2.9 per cent over the past 12 months, the average balance is $3254 (up 3.8 per cent).