Debit Volume Grows, Credit Goes Negative

Visa reported that credit payment volume, which was in the 1-to-2% range for most of the quarter, has turned negative through the first three weeks of October. In contrast, debit payment volume has continued to grow at low double digits.”

Transactions on Visa’s U.S. debit cards dollar volume for payments is getting close to credit’s—$210 billion in the third quarter for debit versus $213 billion for credit. Those figures reflect respective increases of 15.1% and 5% from $183 billion and $203 billion in fiscal 2007’s third quarter.

U.S. debit payment transactions grew 14.5% to 5.33 billion in the third quarter from 4.65 billion in the year-earlier period. Credit payment transactions grew 3.7% to 2.33 billion from last year’s 2.25 billion. Credit cards outstanding in the U.S. fell 2.9% to 335 million from 345 million in 2007’s third quarter while the U.S. debit card base increased 15.2% to 311 million from 270 million.