January 2025
Consumer Checkpoint: Resolute in the new year?
Will rising confidence and solid wage growth mean consumers will kick off the new year with momentum?
Key takeaways
- 2024 was a solid year for consumers and they finished the year strong, with December card spending per household up 2.2% year-over-year (YoY), according to Bank of America aggregated credit and debit card data. Seasonally-adjusted card spending per household rose 0.7% month-over-month (MoM).
- As we kick off 2025, the consumer continues to benefit from a supportive labor market with after-tax wage and salary growth up 3% YoY in December.
- Buy now, pay later (BNPL) is increasingly being used as a way of financing spending. The rise in BNPL adoption appears to have been driven by lower- and middle-income households. But it appears from Bank of America data that most users make relatively few BNPL payments each month.
- Additionally, consumers appear to believe it’s a good time to buy durables ahead of potentially higher prices, though in Bank of America data we see little evidence that these concerns were spurring them to spend more in this area over the last few months of 2024. Changes in consumer sentiment do not always translate into action.
Read our full analysis for a more in-depth look at these trends.
Consumer Checkpoint is a regular publication from Bank of America Institute. It aims to provide a holistic and real-time estimate of U.S. consumers’ spending and their financial well-being, leveraging the depth and breadth of Bank of America proprietary data. Any such Bank of America proprietary data is not intended to be reflective or indicative of, and should not be relied upon as, the results of operations, financial conditions or performance of Bank of America.
