Americans' monthly spending on credit cards is on the rise again, according to the research firm Synovate.
Households with credit cards increased their monthly spending 6%, to an average of $1,559 across all credit cards in their wallets, in 2010 from last year, the Chicago company said.
Anuj Shahani, Synovate's director of competitive tracking services, said this increased card spending indicates that the economy may not be as gloomy as some believe. "We all are still paying down debt; however, what we are seeing in our data are that we are once again spending on our credit cards," he said.
High unemployment and "strategic defaults" may also be driving the higher card-spending trends, Shahani said.
The unemployed rely on credit cards to replace their missing cash flow, he said. Strategic defaults, in which consumers make a choice not to pay a debt despite an ability to pay, are helping keep delinquency rates low on credit cards because people use them while defaulting on their mortgages, he said.
Synovate also reported a third consecutive quarterly increase in credit card mailings. In the second quarter, credit card offers to U.S. households rose 83.4%, to 640.3 million, from the year earlier. Synovate predicted that for all of 2010 the number of mailed credit card offers will rise 62%, to 2.25 billion.
