Debit Card Usage Spike Bodes Well For Future

Visa announced its quarterly results yesterday, but perhaps what was most important about the information released by the card giant was that it appears as though consumers are becoming more fiscally responsible.

The first quarter of 2009 represented the first time ever that consumers used their debit cards to make purchases than their credit cards, as debit card transaction volume topped $206 billion.

This is both good and bad news for the economy. It’s bad news because consumers cutting back on their credit card usage could prolong the recession (especially considering today’s news that consumer spending fell in March). But I think that cutting back on credit card spending could bode well for the future as we seek to avoid making the same mistakes that put us here in the first place.