Holiday Shoppers Loved Their Credit Cards

[jeffrey]

Holiday shoppers went on a spending spree with their credit cards this season according to both VISA and MasterCard. VISA announced that spending on its branded cards totaled $25.4 billion from December 20 through 26 which was more than a 31% increase over the same period last year. This included a huge $4.35 billion on Christmas Eve.

The overall holiday season also saw double digit increases for VISA over the same period last year. For the November through December holiday season VISA saw a 15.3% increase over year 2003 with consumers making payments of some $197.5 billion on VISA branded payment cards.

MasterCard also reported double digit growth of nearly 18% in the number of transactions made with its branded cards that made this year's holiday transactions the most in its history. These transactions were worth $60 billion, an increase of nearly 13% from last year.




With the several increases in the Federal Reserve short term prime rate, the credit carried on the cards this holiday season will cost consumers quite a bit more than they did last year. To test your knowledge of credit cards, try our Credit Card Quiz and our brand new Credit Card Quiz II.