Almost all credit sectors showed an increase with car finance, second charge mortgages and store instalment credit all growing by 26% compared with the previous April.
Credit card finance and personal loans were up by 3%. The store card market contracted.
The upward trend in use of consumer credit since the beginning of the year follows relatively low growth in 2011.
Geraldine Kilkelly, head of research and chief economist at the Finance & Leasing Association, said: “April’s figures are the fourth consecutive month of overall year-on-year growth in consumer credit provided by FLA members.
"The car finance market has now shown strong growth for several months and more recently we have seen a pick-up in spending using store instalment credit. It may be that we are at last seeing tentative signs of a recovery in consumer confidence.”
