First Data report: October prepaid card spend slowed

Atlanta -- A report released Monday by payment solutions provider First Data Corp. found that year-over-year October dollar volume growth of activations of closed-loop prepaid cards was 2.7%, down from 8.9% year-over-year growth in September.



The First Data SpendTrend Closed-Loop Prepaid Cards analysis tracks U.S. same-merchant activations, redemptions and reloads of merchant-branded prepaid cards, including spending, gift, incentive and promotional cards.



Activation transaction growth was 11.7% in October, a slight increase from September’s growth of 10.7%. As the holiday season started early, there was an increase in the number of consumers purchasing gift cards in October.



Overall dollar volume growth of reloads was 25.2%, an increase from September’s growth of 20.7%. October’s reload transaction growth was 34.4%, compared with September’s growth of 30.4%, as consumers continued to use their gift cards for purchases.