RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.— Valentine’s Day-related purchasing was way up in 2015.
Or at least there was more love in the air if research by CO-OP Financial Services, Des Moines, Iowa-based The Members Group, and Franklin, Mass.-based Saylent Technologies is any guide.
The Members Group found credit spending increased 21%, and CO-OP Financial Services and Saylent Technologies, Inc. found debit spending increased 16% for the three days culminating in Valentine’s Day compared to 2014.
The 21% increase in credit spending is based on transactions made from Thursday, Feb. 12 through Saturday, Feb. 14 by users carrying credit cards issued by TMG’s FI clients. TMG’s analysts attribute this to growth in credit card portfolios of TMG’s clients and the fact cardholders used their credit cards on average 3.5% more this year as compared to last year.
The data was collected via TMG’s ClearTrend analysis tool.
“When combined with sophisticated analytics, data allows us to actively listen-in on the consumer conversation,” said Shazia Manus, CEO, TMG. “While our issuing partners want to understand overall transaction volume trends, they are also interested in how various demographic and psychographic data, such as age, interests and affinity to their FI, impact spending behaviors.”
The TMG analysis also shows:
- While Millennials made 58% more transactions than the next closest age bracket, they spent far less. Millennials spent an average of $39.09 – 65% less than the next-lowest age bracket (age 30-39).
- The early month-on-book cardholders (zero to three months) were the biggest spenders. They led all other categories in both transactions and dollars spent, spending 54% more than the next highest category (four to six months).
- Out of the three days, the day before Valentine’s Day saw the most credit transactions – 9.3% more than Feb. 12 and 5.7% more than Feb. 14.
Increase In Debit Spend
During the same Thursday-through-Saturday period, CO-OP and Saylent found a 16.45% increase in debit card spending.
The results covered debit activity at all of the merchant types that Saylent tracks nationwide by members of credit unions that use CO-OP for transaction processing. The year-over-year comparison was performed through CO-OP Revelation, an advanced analytics solution powered by Saylent.
“Last year we found debit card spending increased 19% compared to 2013, and this year’s increase of 16% almost equaled that in Valentine’s Day 2015,” said Stan Hollen, president/CEO, CO-OP. “It seems Americans really are putting their hearts into the economic rebound.”
The CO-OP and Saylent analysis also shows:
- People used their debit cards more this year when buying loved ones products to help them check off their “honey-do” lists and better their homes, with an almost 38% increase in transactions and close to a 49% increase in spend at home supply warehouse stores.
- Consumers used their debit cards more to go out for romantic dinners and drinks, with a more than 33% increase in transactions and 47% jump in spend at restaurants, and a 79% increase in transactions and more than 79% increase in spend at bars compared to last year during this time period.
- Credit union members were not only taking out their debit cards more at restaurants and bars, but they also significantly increased their debit card usage at movie theaters, with a close to 99% transaction increase and almost 100% spend increase over this time period compared to 2014.
“Consumers continued to spend on their loved ones this past Valentine’s Day, with many of the categories we track experiencing a significant rise in debit card usage compared to last year,” said Tyson Nargassans, president/CEO, Saylent. “Insights like these provided by our software are highly valuable for credit unions, as they gain timely knowledge of card usage to enable them to better understand what motivates their members.”