Credit Card Use Up

According to First Data Corp.’s SpendTrend report, consumers boosted non-discretionary spending via credit cards in June 2011 by 6.8% over year ago, with dollar volume up 10.7%, which may point to a new round of consumer woes. Signature debt was up 8.8% (dollar volume up 8.5%), Debit use was up 3.8% (dollar volume up 6.0%), and check use was down 12.3% (dollar volume down 12.6%). Inflation drove core prices higher, with June average ticket growth up 2.1% -- the largest increase in more than a year. Most industries posted higher dollar volume growth in June versus May. The exception was the hotel industry, which saw dollar volume growth slow from 11.5% in May to 7.6% in June.