ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—A combination of strong job growth and low unemployment is fueling consumer spending, which continues to drive credit card usage higher, reports PSCU in its May edition of its Payments Index.
Credit card purchases in April were up 20% over 2021, while debit card purchases were up 4%, the Index shows. Also, contactless tokenized card present transactions continue to gain momentum in the market, PSCU reported.
“Consumer spending remained strong in April 2022, with credit continuing to drive the largest growth and average credit card balances experiencing the second consecutive month of year-over-year growth,” said Cody Banks, managing vice president, Payments and Fraud Strategy, PSCU. “This month’s Consumer Price Index experienced the first drop in eight months, while the Fed increased interest rates again, with additional increases expected to come this summer. As growth in touchless payments at the point of sale continues to gain momentum, we take a look at the growth of mobile wallets in this month’s Deep Dive, including the top merchant sectors and usage differences by generation.”
The Findings
A sampling of key takeaways from the May report includes, according to PSCU:
- Mobile wallets continue to show strong growth, with notable growth coming from younger generations. For Gen Z (19- to 23-year-olds), mobile wallet transactions in April were up 158% for credit and 102% for debit year over year. “The importance of being top of wallet in their mobile device for this age group is growing, as mobile wallet transactions now represent 7.4% of card present debit activity and 3.9% of card present credit activity,” PSCU said.
- The Entertainment sector once again posted top growth rates for credit and debit purchases in April. For credit purchases, Travel and Gasoline were a close second and third, respectively. For debit purchases, Gasoline was a close second, with Restaurants and Travel tied for a more distance third, the company reported.
- The average credit card balance for April 2022 was $2,711, up 3.4% (or $90) year over year. April marked the second consecutive month of year-over-year growth.
The full report is available for download here.
Yes, FOMO is Very Real in this Case!
Don’t forget to check your Spam/Junk email folder if you haven’t been receiving your free, popular and daily CUToday.info news headlines.
And if you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time.
CUToday.info has received very positive response from readers following the move to an improved provider of the daily headlines, but many also noted they did need to go to their Spam/Junk folder and mark it as safe.
The new email solution has not only improved every reader’s delivery experience, but it also features a fresh, new format that is easy to read, especially on mobile devices.
Please note and/or make your IT department or email administrator aware the emails will be coming from the domains CUTodayinfo.com and CUTodayinfoReply.com