Credit volume growth overtakes debit

Consumer card spending jumped 8.5 percent in February 2011 over the same month in 2010, according to First Data Corp.'s SpendTrend analysis. The dollar volume growth exceeded January's year-over-year increase of 7.4 percent. Consumers demonstrated renewed faith in the economic recovery as the unemployment rate dropped to 8.9 percent in February, according to First Data.

For the first time in over two years, credit dollar volume growth of 9.9 percent was higher than debit growth. Signature debit volume grew 8.7 percent year over year, while PIN debit grew at just 6.1 percent. Average ticket growth of 0.1 percent for the month was due exclusively to rising gas prices. In the travel industry, dollar volume growth was 13.6 percent, again partially due to rising fuel prices.

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