Consumers Charge To Begin Holiday Season

[jeffrey]

With the traditional beginning of the holiday shopping season beginning on Black Friday, consumers pulled their credit cards out of their wallets instead of cash to increase the amount they charged by 14% over last year. According to VISA, holiday shoppers charged nearly $4 billion ($3.9 billion) on VISA branded credit and debit cards on Black Friday.

The 14% increase in use on Black Friday also complimented a 17% increase in sales volume on VISA cards between Oct. 31 and Nov. 25. Consumers charged $82.7 billion during this period.




VISA said that consumers used their credit cards for the most part to purchase consumer electronics, home and garden products and items at mall-based specialty stores.

[cercis]

We use our credit cards for everything. We have citibank dividend cards and discover card. We pay them off and make money from them. Works for me.

I didn't, however, go shopping on Black Friday. We're almost done with our shopping. We're going to send local, organic citrus to family and we're paying for the rest of the family to visit us (we paid the hotel, not the travel). We've already bought for our kids. We just need to find token gifts for each other.