Card spending up in May

HTT Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 6/12/2012 12:05:23 PM

Atlanta - Consumer spending by credit, signature debit, PIN debit, EBT cards and checks at U.S. merchants rose 7.0% year-over-year in May, with transaction rate up 5.9%, according to First Data Corporation, an electronic commerce and payment processing firm.
Although May card spending was up compared to April's 5.7% growth, activity slowed as the month progressed, particularly as discretionary purchases slowed.
"Overall May card spending growth was healthy, but there is reason for caution. During the month we saw consumers reducing the growth of their discretionary spending at retail merchants and increasingly resorting to credit for necessities," said Silvio Tavares, svp and division manager of First Data Global Information and Analytics Solutions, which publishes the monthly SpendTrend report.
By card category, credit card use was up 8.2%, PIN debit card use up 7.2% and signature debit card use up 5.5%, while the use of checks fell 4.2%.