Recovery in Card Usage Gathers Steam Among Credit-Union Members

Even though credit card spending is still depressed as a result of the Covid-19 economic downturn, payment card volume trends have now been improving for a month or more, according to new data from credit-union service organization PSCU.

St. Petersburg, Fla.-based PSCU reported Monday that overall credit card spending by members of its credit-union clients was down 17.0% in the week ending May 10 compared to the corresponding week in 2019 while overall debit card spending was up 12.3%. “For credit, it was the fourth consecutive week of strengthening results,” PSCU said in its latest Tracking Transaction Trends report. “For debit, it is the fifth consecutive week of improvements, and the weekly spend for debit card is above historical growth rates.”

What’s more, spending in states hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic is improving at the same rate as the U.S. overall, according to PSCU. These states are California, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York, plus the District of Columbia. Credit card spending in those areas last week was down 21.6% year-over-year while debit spending had increased 8.5%.

In the eight states that did not have governor-issued stay-at-home orders in place, credit card spending last week was down 12.6% from a year earlier. Debit spending was up 11.2%, similar to the nation overall, PSCU said. 

Reflecting again the boom in e-commerce because so many stores and restaurants are closed or have scaled back operations because of the pandemic, PSCU said card-not-present purchases accounted for 51.3% of overall credit transactions last week and 59.8% of the total spend, up from 32% and 45%, respectively, year-over-year. With debit cards, CNP purchases accounted for 34.2% of total transactions and 46.3% of total spend versus 20% and 33%, respectively, a year ago.