Consumer Card Use Drops

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What are We Going to Do About It?

An Associated Press brief appearing in Wednesday's Charlotte Observer reports that Americans use of credit cards in February 2009 dropped dramatically - "a record amount" in fact.  Overall consumer borrowing (via credit cards - yes that's borrowing folks) dropped 3.5 percent from January - or at an annual rate of 7.48 billion in February.

Ok.  We've known consumers were pulling back so none of this should be a surprise.  In fact - we've seen the change in our portfolio and our merchants of course are on the front lines - business is tough.

Here at XBS we're a little weary though of referring to these economically challenging times in sales calls and newsletters.  Time to work on the attitude.  We're forging ahead with marketing plans and want to help our merchants of course in any way we can.

One thing XBS does - is turn to our merchant portfoliio whenever we look for vendors, products or services.  Our merchants are good at what they do - and so whether we need something at the office or at home - we make it a point whenever possible to utilize their expertise.

Can't use all of them (though we'd like to) - but as we do we'll also let you know about it right here on the blog - just in case, well, you need what we need.

Be sure to look out for our Kudos category in May - we'll share how our clients put their savvy to work by streamlining their merchant accounts for profitable processing and some of the amazing stuff they sell, service or create.