American consumers will spend a record $126.5 billion using credit cards and bank debit cards this holiday season, according to CardWeb.com of Frederick, Md. The research group projects major credit cards will account for $92.6 billion of the total holiday charges, while department store and gas credit card spending will top $15 billion. Debit cards, which deduct money from bank checking accounts, are expected to account for $18.8 billion of this year’s holiday spending.
During the 29-day period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, CardWeb expects Americans to use their credit cards more than 1.6 billion times, charging an average of $3.7 billion in purchases per day or $165 million each hour. And during the peak days for paying by plastic–Nov. 26, Nov. 27 and Dec. 24–consumers will use their credit cards more than 7,000 times per second, generating charges of nearly $500,000 per second.
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The fastest growing area of credit card use this year, according to the company, will be online shopping. CardWeb projects nearly $12 billion in online holiday sales on credit and debit cards.
While Americans are expected to charge $100 billion on credit cards in the December billing period, the company projects that more than $80 billion will be paid off by the end of January. What happens to the other $20 billion?
It joins the $456 million Americans already owe on major credit cards and the $92 billion they owe on store credit cards, according to CardWeb.
