High street retailers in the UK are expecting today to be their busiest of the year as consumers do their last minute Christmas shopping.

High street retailers in the UK are expecting today to be their busiest of the year as shoppers make their final Christmas dash.

Visa Europe says it expects £1.3bn to be spent using its cards today, making it the busiest day on the UK high street in the run-up to Christmas.

The busiest time of day is expected to be between 1pm and 2pm when it predicts £916,667 will be spent every minute, equal to £15,278 every second, on Visa cards.

Tuesday’s spending bonanza is expected to be larger than that of Panic Saturday, when the Centre for Retail Research said shoppers spent £1.2bn.