• August 10, 2010

Americans are generating the highest spend on their credit cards since Synovate Mail Monitor began collecting this information more than 20 years ago. The Chicago-based company projects that a total of 2.25 billion offers will be mailed by the end of the year -- a 62% increase versus 1.39 billion mailed offers seen in 2009.

During the second quarter of 2010, U.S. households received 640.3 million credit card offers -- an 83% increase, versus 349.1 million offers mailed during the same time a year ago. Chase was the lead issuer, quadrupling their mailings versus the same period in the prior year. Citibank, the second largest mailer for second qurater 2010, demonstrated a major comeback by showing significant growth quarter over quarter, almost triple their mailings from first quarter 2010. Discover showed an increase in mailings of 70% versus the prior quarter.

On average, households with credit cards are spending $1,559 across all the cards in the wallet in 2010, a 6% increase compared to $1,471 in 2009. This average spend across all cards is on a continual rise, reaching $1,627 for Q2 2010 across all cards in the wallet. The only time consumers spent more was in first quarter 2008, the quarter prior to the financial meltdown.--Tanya Irwin