The Rollercoaster Ride of SaverLife Member Spending
When we look carefully at SaverLife member week-over-week spending on credit cards and debit cards, we see that it has significantly decreased since the coronavirus pandemic took hold across the country. The first chart shows that starting in early March, SaverLife members began decreasing their $500+ spending on credit cards - a 44% decrease when compared to 2019. There was an uptick at the end of March when social distancing measures went into to place across the country and people might have spent more to stockpile food and supplies. Overall, at the beginning of April, we saw a 100% difference between 2019 and 2020.
When we look at checking account withdrawals over the same period, we can see that the decrease in spending directly from checking accounts isn’t as stark as the decrease seen in credit cards. The difference is 23%, which is still significant.
The last week of March 2020, we see a spike in withdrawals, likely due to mortgage and rent payments, at a time when a third of the country was unable to make rent payments due April 1st.
Over the years, SaverLife has learned that a large percentage of our members receive tax refunds in February. We also typically see increases in savings deposits, paying down debt, catching up on utilities, and healthcare spending.
In other words, the 2019 uptick in healthcare spending is typical for every other year we’ve analyzed spending during tax season. This year, however, looks significantly different. The data shows a 15% decrease in members spending money on healthcare compared with 2019. Does this mean Americans are foregoing treatment or delaying paying outstanding medical bills?
