Spending on credit and debit cards overseas has been growing rapidly rising 15.5% since 2005 compared with 10% growth in domestic online credit card purchases.
Banks consider this reflects the number of Australians travelling overseas. They say the use of Australian credit cards to by goods from overseas online is tiny compared to spending in Australia.
Last year Australians made 6.25 million trips overseas up 55% on 5 years ago.
Items delivered from overseas by Australia Post are also rising (up to 10%) compared with an average annual decline of 1% in local mail.