Credit card searches in Australia have picked up from a three year low in May 2009, and were up 24% comparing weeks ending 21 November 2009 and 2 May 2009. This is one indication that consumers may be adopting a less tentative attitude towards their personal debt, amidst reports that the consumer outlook for Christmas spending this year is positive.

The below figure charts search variations on ‘credit card’ and ‘term deposit’ trended over a three year period (I’ve excluded their plural forms for the sake of brevity).

Search variations on ‘term deposit’ reached their peak during the week ending 11 October 2008, as Australian banks actively promoted term deposits and encouraged spending restraint from consumers. Since then, search traffic around term deposits has retained its overall momentum, but is not growing at the same rate.

So now that there’s an indication that the tide may be changing, who’s helping to drive increased awareness of credit cards? The below figure shows the top variations on ‘credit card’, with branded terms accounting for 8 out of the top 10 searches. The leading term was ‘ignite credit card’, owned by Westpac, with 3.41% search volume during the 12 weeks ending 21 November 2009. The most popular branded search variation on ‘credit cards’ (plural) was ‘anz credit cards’ for the same time period.

For those tempted to put all their Christmas presents on credit this year, here’s some timely advice from finance commentator, Michael Pascoe.

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