Primax Payments Pulse:
Fall 2025 Spending Report

Economic uncertainty and a government shutdown are reshaping consumer sentiment and spending patterns heading into the final quarter of 2025. The Primax Payments Pulse: Fall 2025 Spending Report analyzes year-over-year, same-store financial institution data and offers a three-month snapshot of consumer transactions and trends from July through September 2025.

This edition also revisits a Deep Dive into the Travel sector—a discretionary category that continues to soften.

Key takeaways from this special edition report include:

• Growth in debit remained consistent, while growth in credit activity improved for the Third Quarter. Debit purchases increased by 5.8%, with the Goods, Services and Money Services sectors accounting for 86% of the growth. The only decline was in Gasoline. Credit purchases were up 2.4%, with the Services, Goods and Restaurant sectors accounting for 91% of the entire increase. Similarly, debit transactions were up 3.7% and credit transactions rose by 2.2% for the Third Quarter as well.

• Impacted by the U.S. government shutdown, the September BLS data for CPI and job growth/unemployment were not published. This provides less visibility of key economic indicators for the Federal Reserve in their late October meeting. Tentative rate reductions were identified for the two remaining 2025 FOMC meetings.
• As an alternative to the BLS jobs report, the September ADP private-sector jobs report showed a reduction in U.S. private employment jobs by 32,000. Earlier this year, the ADP jobs report was one of the first to identify monthly job reductions.
• Travel Purchases for credit and debit were down for the second consecutive year, in stark contrast to the post-COVID boon previously experienced within the sector. Year-to-date credit purchases in the Travel sector were down 3.6% and debit purchases were down 1.1%. The largest contributors to the drop in both credit and debit travel purchases were Airlines and Lodging (Hotel/Motel).

Download the full report for more key findings from July through September 2025.