During the Pandemic, Spending on Chase Credit Cards Fell 40%

According to Reuters, in March 2020 and early April, credit card spending by some Chase customers fell 40% compared with the same period last year. The reason is pretty obvious: during the pandemic, people stayed home and mostly spent only on necessities such as groceries. Big-ticket spending like travel largely disappeared, so overall spending naturally declined.

The JPMorgan Chase Institute studied anonymized spending data from 8 million Chase credit card customers between March 1 and April 11. The report said credit card users with household income below $ 39,000 reduced spending by 38%, while wealthier cardholders with income above $ 92,000 reduced spending by 46%. The organization said this gap largely reflects the fact that wealthier households tend to have higher average spending.

You can also see it from the credit card side: there were basically no new sign-up bonuses in these two months, and Chase also tightened its card approval standards. If we really go through another Great Depression, sign-up bonuses will probably keep dropping...