Black Friday Is Red Friday For Consumers

[jeffrey]

While "Black Friday" was a good day for retailers to boost their profits, it came at the expense of consumers going into the red. VISA reported a volume increase on their credit cards of 15.5% on Black Friday over the same day last year. MasterCard notched up a 10% increase.

Consumers spent more than $2.1 billion on their VISA credit cards and an additional $1.7 billion on their VISA debit cards. These spending increases on credit cards come as short term interest rates have risen meaning that consumers will be paying more for the privilege of borrowing on plastic. According to cardweb.com, Americans owed $662 billion on VISA, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express cards at the end of the third quarter.