Card spending rose and card losses fell at the big banks in the third quarter

Customers of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo spent 8 to 12% more on their debit and credit cards in July–September 2026 than a year earlier, the banks reported on 13 and 14 October. Over the same quarter, each of the three wrote off a smaller share of its card loans than a year before.

JPMorgan’s debit and credit card sales volume was $539.5 billion, up 10%. Bank of America’s customers spent $266 billion on its credit and debit cards, up 8%. At Wells Fargo, debit card purchases rose 8% to $144.9 billion and credit card purchases 12% to $45.0 billion. Citi’s US credit card spend rose 11% to $175 billion, a figure that includes an additional American Airlines co-branded card portfolio it took on in the second quarter.

Prices and pay rose more slowly. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on 14 October that consumer prices were 3.7% higher in September than a year earlier, and on 2 October that average hourly earnings on private payrolls were 3.0% higher. Card spending is counted in dollars, so higher prices raise it even when people buy the same things. The job market changed little: unemployment was 4.2% in September and has stayed between 4.1% and 4.3% since March, and payrolls added 29,000 jobs.

A bank’s card totals also grow when it adds customers. Bank of America opened just over 1 million new credit card accounts in the quarter, 9% more than a year earlier, and Wells Fargo opened 661,000, against 707,000 a year earlier. So the totals measure the size of each bank’s card business, which can grow without any one household spending more.

Card losses moved the other way. The net charge-off rate, the share of card loans written off as uncollectible after recoveries, at an annual rate, fell to 2.91% from 3.15% at JPMorgan, to 3.22% from 3.46% at Bank of America and to 3.73% from 4.02% at Wells Fargo. Citi’s US card net credit losses fell 4%, which it put down mainly to better results in its private label cards. The share of card loans 30 or more days past due, an early sign of losses, was lower than a year earlier at JPMorgan and Bank of America and about the same at Wells Fargo.

Wells Fargo’s chief executive, Charlie Scharf, said: “Consumers are spending more, loan delinquencies are low, and deposit and investment balances have grown.” He named higher interest rates, higher oil prices and persistent inflation as risks to the economy, and said forces such as investment in AI infrastructure, high employment and consistent wage growth continue to outweigh them. JPMorgan’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, said the US economy was still fueled by business investment and consumer spending, and listed sticky inflation and rising interest rates among forces that “continue to shift under the surface.”

All four banks were profitable in the quarter. JPMorgan earned $15.3 billion, Bank of America $6.9 billion after a $1.2 billion regulatory settlement charge, Wells Fargo $6.0 billion and Citi $5.2 billion. Citi added $208 million to its reserves for US cards, against $58 million a year earlier, mainly because of changes in the economic outlook. JPMorgan’s Consumer & Community Banking unit added $50 million, against $575 million a year earlier.

The BLS publishes the October jobs report on 6 November and the October consumer price index on 10 November. In dibsresearch, you can put the four banks in the Grid with a column for the card net charge-off rate, each cell cited to its filing, or ask the Associate about one bank’s card business and open its release at the passage it cites.