Bank of America aggregated credit card transaction data showed that overall credit card spending in the United States rose 3.8% year-over-year in February, according to a BofA report. That reading marks the ninth straight month in which year-over-year growth has accelerated and is the highest annual growth rate recorded since January 2023.
The February result represented an increase from January, when aggregated credit card spending grew 3.2% year-over-year. On a month-over-month basis, however, spending fell by 5.4% in February, a drop that the report notes was slightly larger than typical seasonal patterns for the month.
BofA's dataset also tracked behavior across income groups. Spending by higher-income households declined 5.1% month-over-month in February, yet this cohort's monthly performance was about 30 basis points better than the overall population. Measured on an annual basis, credit card spending among higher-income households grew 4.8% in February, accelerating from 3.4% year-over-year in January.
The bank measured total card spending per household and reported a 3.2% year-over-year increase for February. Debit card spending volume also showed an uptick in annual growth, accelerating to 2.7% year-over-year in February from 2.2% in January.
BofA highlighted that its card spending trends have historically shown a strong correlation with major payments networks' reported volumes. The report specifically noted a high correlation with Visa and Mastercard U.S. purchase volumes and U.S. credit card volumes. In addition, the aggregated trends suggest an acceleration in American Express reported network volume, billed business, and U.S. consumer spending, metrics that have previously tracked closely with BofA's card data.
Looking at spending categories, restaurants recorded a 4.4% year-over-year increase in February, up from 4.0% in January. Travel-related spending strengthened to a 5.1% year-over-year gain in February, rising from 3.3% in January. Entertainment was the notable outlier: spending in that category declined 0.5% year-over-year in February, a reversal from 10.2% year-over-year growth recorded in January.
The report also emphasized widening differences in spending behavior between higher-income and lower-income households, with the divergence particularly pronounced in discretionary categories. BofA economists called attention to this growing gap as a notable feature of the February data.
Taken together, the February figures point to a continued acceleration in annualized card spending across several consumer-facing categories while revealing short-term softness on a monthly basis and increasing dispersion by income group. These patterns have implications for payments networks and consumer discretionary sectors that tend to reflect wholesale shifts in spending intensity and composition.