News

First Data SpendTrend: Payment growth lags in February

March 12, 2014

First Data Corp. has released its SpendTrend analysis for Feb. 1–Feb. 28, 2014, compared with the same period in 2013. Credit, prepaid and signature debit gained ground, but total spending growth dropped slightly vs. January.

Overall dollar volume growth remained positive at 2.4 percent, but marked a slight slowdown vs. 2.5 percent growth in January, due to continued severe weather.

Spending growth gained momentum near the end of the month as temperatures turned warmer and more consumers began to receive their tax refunds — especially since refund volumes and values were up slightly this year.

Retail spending growth of -0.3 percent was up from of -0.9 percent in January, but remained in the red as back-to-back snowstorms hit the Northeast and storms in the South forced store closures.

Spending at non-store retailers marked the highest growth in a year as consumers shopped from home during severe weather.

"Consumer spending growth was again unfavorably impacted by severe weather across the nation, which hindered shopping activity for most of the month," said Krish Mantripragada, SVP of information and analytics solutions at First Data. "Credit card spending growth continues to be strong as consumer confidence remains pinned near post-recession highs, which has fueled consumers' appetite for credit and should support more spending growth."

The analysis tracks same-store POS data by credit, signature debit, PIN debit and checks from nearly 4 million U.S. merchant locations.