Holiday Spending by the Numbers

How much will you be spending this holiday season? Probably less than you did last year (about $25 less), but, if last year’s any indication—when the average shopper dropped $112 more than he’d anticipated—still more than you intend to spend, whether you draw up an official budget or not. Whatever you buy, it’ll probably be on sale: 87% of shoppers won’t bite unless there’s a discount of 20% or more. And let’s hope you’re not among the 13 million-plus consumers who are trying to figure out how to pay for this upcoming holiday’s expenses when they haven’t even paid off debts from last year’s holiday season.

Here are a bunch of interesting holiday shopping stats and survey figures culled from a variety of resources, including Consumer Reports, eBillme, Accenture, a Gallup poll, the National Retail Federation, Western Union, and another poll from eBillme.

12 Percentage of consumers who plan on spending $0, zilch, nada this holiday season

13 Percentage of consumers who say they have been responsibly saving money throughout the year in anticipation of holiday season

13 Percentage of consumers who say they are willing to actually pay full price for specific gifts for the upcoming holidays

$25 The anticipated decrease in the average American’s holiday spending, with 27% of consumers saying they plan on spending less for Christmas gifts this year, and 11% saying they’ll spend more

27 Percentage of people who received gift cards in 2009 but still haven’t used them yet

39 Of the consumers who made a budget for holiday spending last year, the percentage that spent over their budget; 5% say they went way over budget

40 The percentage of online retailers that began marketing winter holiday shopping ideas and sales to customers before Halloween

53 Percentage of consumers who say they are unlikely to shop on Black Friday

57.1 Percentage of consumers who plan on buying gifts for themselves during holiday shopping excursions, up from 52.9% in 2009; it is estimated that shoppers will reward themselves with $108 in gifts

87 Percentage of shoppers who won’t buy gifts and holiday goods unless there is a discount of at least 20%; 25% of shoppers say they expect discounts of 50% or more

$811 What the average shopper spent last holiday season—$112 higher than what shoppers had planned to spend

$896 What the average shopper using credit cards spent last holiday season—$85 higher than the overall average

13.6 million Number of Americans who still haven’t paid off debt related to last year’s winter holidays

The Growing Debate Over Prepaid Debit Cards

At an event in Durham, N.C. on Wednesday, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray announced that the agency is “decid[ing] how we should go about regulating prepaid cards to better protect consumers and to provide clear rules for prepaid providers.”

The rapidly growing prepaid market is attracting both banks and non-banks, and more Americans, especially those classified as “unbanked” or “underbanked” are using these cards as de facto checking accounts.