Americans will use general purpose credit/debit cards and store credit cards to charge about $120 billion in retail sales this holiday season. The figure is about 5.4% above last year. Signature debit card use is expected to soar by nearly 17% while store credit cards will generate fewer sales this year, about 8% less. Consumers will likely rack up more than $77 billion in holiday sales on VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover credit cards. VISA reported this week that total spending by consumers and businesses on VISA-branded payment cards rose to approximately $22.3 billion last week, a 14.7% increase over the same period in 2004. VISA says the figures point to a moderate to strong holiday season.
| Holiday Card Volume |
|---|
| (five weeks ending 12/25) |
|---|
| 2004 | 2005 | Gain |
| Credit: | $73.6 billion | $77.1 billion | + 4.8% |
|---|
| Debit: | $24.2 billion | $28.2 billion | +16.7% |
|---|
| Store: | $16.0 billion | $14.7 billion | - 8.0% |
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| TOTAL | $113.8 billion | $120.0 billion | + 5.4% |
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| Source: CardData (www.carddata.com) |
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