2010 Holiday/Gift Spending

Beginning in 1999, Cardbeat has periodically featured a series of questions about how cardholders approach holiday spending from a planning perspective. The questions have been repeated several times since then. In this issue, we re-examine consumers’ borrowing habits in order to understand the current mindset of the borrower. In 2010, the credit crunch caused concern that borrowers will change loan preferences and repayment habits. This report also looks at the way consumers use borrowed money (including money borrowed from credit cards and other loan types), what they look for when they take out loans, and how they repay them.

While this report suggests a weak holiday spending season, there are also positive shifts in cardholder behavior that are reason for optimism as the U.S. economy slowly improves. Among the encouraging signs for banks and credit card issuers are strength in gift card purchases and debit card usage. Another is card rewards, which continue to influence cardholder behavior.

Data included in this report were gathered using a web survey administered to 430 credit card users in the U.S. during October 2009.