ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.--In September, consumer spending growth remained consistent despite subdued consumer sentiment, reported Velera, citing its October edition of the Velera Payments Index.
“With the holiday season approaching, we are seeing clients moving beyond the traditional ‘spend and get’ campaigns and incorporating behavioral trends to encourage members to spend, while also taking advantage of digital capabilities like mobile wallets and tap-and-go,” said Jason Medick, VP, marketing consulting, Advisors Plus Consulting, Velera. “As the holiday shopping season seems to start earlier every year, we are also seeing holiday campaigns starting in October to match consumer spending patterns. With 2025 anticipated to be our busiest year ever for custom campaigns, it’s important for credit unions to be in market with incentives to capture consumer holiday spend – and ensure their cards are loaded in members’ digital wallets to maintain top-of-wallet status.”
Key takeaways for September include:
- Growth in debit remained consistent, while growth in credit activity improved in September. Debit purchases increased by 5.3%, with the Money Services, Goods and Services sectors accounting for 89% of the growth. The only decline was in Grocery. Credit purchases were up 2.9%, with the Service, Goods and Restaurant sectors accounting for 86% of the entire increase. For September, debit transactions were up 3.4% and credit transactions rose by 2.4%.
- Impacted by the U.S. government shutdown, the September BLS data for CPI and job growth/unemployment were not published. This provides less visibility of key economic indicators for the Federal Reserve in their late October meeting. Tentative rate reductions were identified for the two remaining 2025 FOMC meetings.
- As an alternative to the BLS jobs report, the September ADP private-sector jobs report showed a reduction in U.S. private employment jobs by 32,000. Earlier this year, the ADP jobs report was one of the first to identify monthly job reductions.
The full report is available for download here