• by Tanya Gazdik , July 6, 2016

American Express experienced the greatest relative success among Hispanic consumers over the past decade compared to other credit cards, according to Packaged Facts.

Between 2005 and 2015 the number of Latinos with American Express cards more than doubled from 1.7 million to 3.7 million, for a net gain of nearly two million customers, according to Packaged Facts’ Hispanics: Demographic and Consumer Spending Trends.

The number of additional users of American Express cards outpaced those added by Discover (1.6 million), MasterCard (751,000) and Visa (1.8 million). However, the number of Latinos with Visa (8.7 million) or MasterCard (5.8 million) credit cards remained greater than the number of Hispanic American Express card holders (3.7 million). 

Increasingly affluent and credit card-using Latinos are viewed as “pillar of growth” for financial services, says David Sprinkle, research director, Packaged Facts

In recent years Latino consumers have generated exceptional growth opportunities for the financial services industry.  Because of projected above-average growth in the number of Latino consumers and an expanding base of middle- and higher-income Hispanic households, these patterns are likely to continue,

“Over the past decade the percent of Hispanic individuals and households using a wide array of financial services has grown faster than it has among non-Hispanic consumers,” Sprinkle says in a release.

Between 2005 and 2014 the number of Latino households with an income between $75,000 and $100,000 increased more than 50% and Latinos accounted for 39% of the growth in the number of households in this income bracket.  During the same period the number of Hispanic households enjoying an income in excess of $100,000 more than doubled, according to the report.

Millennial Latinos in particular have an outsize importance for marketers of financial services mainly because Hispanics on average are younger than non-Hispanics and thus Millennials account for a greater share of the Hispanic population. Hispanic Millennials (those in the 25- to 34-year-old age group) make up 25% of the Hispanic population while non-Hispanics in this age group represent just 16% of the non-Hispanic population, per the report.

Hispanic 25- to 34-year olds account for almost a quarter of Hispanics with checking accounts while non-Hispanic 25- to 34-year-olds comprise less than 15% of non-Hispanic checking account owners. A similar pattern holds for credit card users and debit card users, according to Packaged Facts

In fact, the traditional lack of interest on the part of Hispanics in credit cards has changed significantly over the past decade. This is true of Latino adults across generations, not just Millennials. Packaged Facts found that between 2005 and 2015:

• The percent of Latinos using credit cards increased as the percent of non-Hispanics with credit cards fell,
• Growth in credit card use by Latinos grew 11 times faster than it did among non-Hispanics,
• Hispanics grew from 8% to 11% of those using credit cards,
• The more than 5 million additional Latinos with credit cards accounted for around half of the growth in the number of consumers using credit cards.