|
|
|
|
|
PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (November 21, 2007) -- CardTrak.com®, the nation's most established and most trusted credit card advisory service for consumers, today released holiday spending projections for credit and debit cards.
Americans will likely use general purpose credit/debit cards and store credit cards to charge more than $148 billion in retail sales between the Thanksgiving Day holiday and the December 25th. While overall spending via all payment means is expected to rise between 4% and 5%, the figure for payments cards will increase about 10% above last year. This year there are 32 shopping days between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday period, compared to 31 days last year and 30 days in 2005. For the 2006 holiday shopping season, holiday purchases on general purpose credit/debit cards and store credit cards increased more than 12%. Signature debit card use is expected to increase by more than 16% while store credit cards will be up about 8.5%. Credit card volume is running about 8% above last year. Consumers will likely rack up more than $92 billion in holiday sales on VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover credit cards.
While there is a major focus on retail shopping data for "Black Friday" (November 23rd) and "Cyber Monday" (November 26th), the peak holiday shopping day will likely be Saturday December 22nd. Based on historical shopping patterns, the week of December 17-23 will produce the highest level of holiday sales. Furthermore, the holiday shopping period has been expanding as many consumers and retailers shift to the holiday mode shortly after Halloween rather than after Thanksgiving. Payment card usage from prior years indicates that "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday" do not even rank among the top five busiest holiday shopping days. Best time to shop: early mornings and late evenings, especially Monday and Tuesday during the first two weeks of December.
Holiday Card Volume
(five weeks ending 12/25)
2005 2006 2007 Y/Y Gain
Credit: $ 77.1 b $ 85.6 b $ 92.2 b + 7.7%
Debit: $ 28.2 b $ 35.3 b $ 41.0 b +16.2%
Store: $ 14.7 b $ 13.9 b $ 15.1 b + 8.5%
TOTAL $120.0 b $134.8 b $148.3 b +10.0%
Source: CardTrak.com (www.cardtrak.com)
About CardTrak.com
CardTrak.com, http://www.cardtrak.com, is the nation's most established and most trusted credit card advisory service for consumers, serving millions since 1986. CardTrak follows credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, prepaid cards and smart cards. CardTrak follows products from VISA®, MasterCard®, American Express® and Discover®. CardTrak is a registered trademark of CardTrak LLC. CardTrak LLC is a privately-held company headquartered in Port Charlotte, Florida with branch offices nationwide.
Contacts