Holiday Pulse
Fri, Dec 17, 2004
Retail sales charged to major credit cards, signature debit cards, and store credit cards is running nearly 10% over projected levels for this year. For the three weeks ending December 12th, overall retail payment card volume has topped $70 billion, compared to an estimated $64 billion for the 2004 season. Debit cards continue to lead the charge, running about 14% over projected volume. Store credit cards are up 1% to $9.7 billion in retail volume for the holiday period, while credit cards are up more than 10% to $47 billion. According to VISA's "SpendTrak" report, overall retail volume on VISA-branded payment cards for last week was $11.0 billion, an 8.9% increase over last year. MasterCard says its cumulative growth in global transactions for the season, to-date, is 9.8%.
| Holiday Card Volume | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| (three weeks ending 12/12) | |||
| Projected | Actual | Difference | |
| Credit: | $42.6 billion | $47.0 billion | +10.3% |
| Debit: | $12.2 billion | $13.9 billion | +13.9% |
| Store: | $9.6 billion | $ 9.7 billion | + 1.0% |
| TOTAL | $64.4 billion | $70.6 billion | + 9.6% |
| Source: CardData (www.carddata.com) | |||