ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.–Overall card payment volumes showed “positive improvement” for the week ending July 5, according to the latest card spend analysis released by PSCU.
As CUToday.info has reported, each week PSCU’s
Advisors Plus and Data & Analytics has been releasing year-over-year weekly performance data trends based on its member CUs’ members’ data. In this week’s installment, PSCU compares the 27th week of the year (the week ending July 5, 2020, compared to the week ending July 7, 2019).
Among the findings, said PSCU: Overall card payment volumes showed positive improvement for the week, with debit continuing to lead the rebound.
The Specifics
The specific findings include:
- Debit card spend was up 18.8%, an increase of 6.7 percentage points over last week. Transactions were up 3.4% after a dip to negative last week.
- Credit card spend was down 1.3% year over year, rising 4.7 percentage points from the previous week. Transactions were down 6.9% and back on track for a positive trend of improvements.
- Consumers continue strong usage of card-not-present (CNP) alternatives and continue to use less cash.
- Debit card CNP volumes continue to show strong year-over-year growth, up 47.8% for purchases and 42.3% for transactions in Week 27. This is the 12th consecutive week of growth above 35% for debit.
- Credit card CNP volumes were up 16.3% for purchases, with transactions up 23.5%.
- Amazon, which spans multiple merchant categories and is a top CNP merchant, had aggregate purchase volume increases of 94% for debit and 55% for credit.
- Cash withdrawal transactions at the ATM continue to be down, indicating less of a preference and desire for cash. For the most recent week, the number of cash withdrawals are down 17.8%.
Spend By Merchant Category
From a merchant category perspective, PSCU said trends continue to be mixed.
- Grocery continues to perform well overall with purchases up 11% for debit and 12.2% for credit.
- Drug Stores also posted an improvement from the previous week and finished with purchases up 9.6% for debit and 3.8% for credit.
- The purchase volume of consumer goods remains very strong, increasing slightly from the prior week, up 40.1% for debit and 20.3% for credit. According to PSCU, strong categories of note include electronics, home, discount stores, automobile and sporting goods.
- Services had a notable increase with debit up 22.1% and credit up 14.3%. Key contributors included healthcare and home services.
- Travel and Entertainment remain the two most significantly impacted sectors, PSCU said. Travel purchases were down 27.5% for debit and 58.2% for credit, while entertainment was down 40.9% and 51.8%, respectively.
Difference by Hot Zones
PSCU said some differences are evident by market, with the “hot zones” underperforming.
- Overall U.S. spend was up 18.8% for debit and down 1.3% for credit.
- The initial eight states/districts (California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey and New York) that were hardest hit by the pandemic (“hot zones”) saw debit spend up by 17.6% and credit spend down by 5.2%. Spending for the combined group continues to be contracted as compared to the overall U.S.
- The eight states that never issued formal “stay at home” orders saw debit spend up by 13.1% and credit spend down by 2.1% for the week. These are lower than the overall U.S.
- PSCU added, “We continue to watch a second group of ten states that were identified as new ‘hot zones’ by the White House Coronavirus Task Force Performance in these states (Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas and Utah) has been close to overall U.S. results, with purchases up 17.5% on debit and down 2.4% on credit for the current week.
Demonstration of Resilience
“Consumers showed resilience as overall payment volume was very strong for the week, despite resurgent COVID-19 case numbers and slowdowns in state re-openings,” said Glynn Frechette, SVP, Advisors Plus at PSCU. “Debit led the way once again, with volumes improving week over week for both debit and credit – even the newly designated ‘hot zone’ states with rising cases and restrictions showed growth in line with the overall U.S. In addition to the continuation of strong spending on groceries and goods, we also saw very strong growth in the Services sector led by Healthcare and Home Services.”
PSCU said its Weekly U.S. State/Territory Analysis is available on PSCU.com/COVID19, ranking U.S. states and territories by year-over-year performance for debit purchases, credit purchases and ATM transactions.