CARPINTERIA, Calif.–Spending for goods and services goods and services generated by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover credit and debit payment cards issued in the United States amounted to $5.555 trillion in 2017, an increase of 7.9% over 2016, according to data released by The Nilson Report.
Outstanding debt on Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Discover credit cards was $923.22 billion as of Dec. 31, 2017, up 7.3% over the prior year, the Nilson Report said. It added that when retail store card, medical credit card, and other specialty credit cards are added, total credit card debt in the U.S. was $1.069 trillion at year-end 2017, up 6.8%.
The most successful payment card product in the U.S. last year was the Visa credit card. Spending equaled 53.0% of combined credit card spending for Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Discover. All other brands lost market share to Visa, according to The Nilson Report.
"When credit and debit are combined, Visa's market share is even larger," said David Robertson, Publisher of The Nilson Report. "Visa credit and debit cards accounted for 60.0% of the $5.555 trillion in spending for goods and services last year. This is the highest market penetration of any brand in the history of card payments in the U.S."
When comparing spending on credit cards versus debit cards, credit cards gained market share for the eighth year in a row. In 2017, credit cards ($3.352 trillion) accounted for 60.4% of all spending for goods and services, with debit cards ($2.198 trillion) accounting for the remaining 39.6%, The Nilson Report added.
As of Dec. 31, 2017, there were 626.5 million Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover credit cards in the U.S. and 707.5 million Visa and Mastercard debit cards.
U.S. credit and debit cards were used 95.11 billion times in 2017 to make purchases for goods or services.