August 27, 2010:  According to a recent study by Synovate, the market research arm of Aegis Group, U.S. households received 640.3 million credit card offers during the second quarter of 2010.  The volume represents an 83% increase over the same period the previous year.

Synovates’ Mail Monitor program periodically reports on their analysis of credit card solicitation offers.  Their most recent report found that for the April-June period Chase quadrupled the number of offers mailed while Citi’s volume was nearly tripled.

This volume increase follows a 29% jump during the first quarter of the year.  That is a total of 1.12 billion credit card offers sent through the mail in just the first six months of this year. For all of 2009, there were 1.39 billion offers mailed.

The highest quarterly volume measured by Synovates was 1.58 billion mailings sent during the third quarter of 2005.

"We are being repeatedly reminded that anybody betting against the US consumer ends up on the losing side.  American consumer spending accounts for approximately 70% of the US’s GDP, and a robust spend of over $1,600 suggests that the ‘Dr. Dooms’ of the world may be underestimating this economy’s recovery," said Anuj Shahani, director of Competitive Tracking Services for Synovate’s Financial Services group.

Shahani also suggested that an increase in the numbers of card offers being made to U.S. consumers suggests that the credit card market fundamentals are strengthening.

In addition to mailing more offers, issuers and relying on introductory rate incentives to a greater extent than ever in the 22 years of Synovate's tracking of the card industry.  The company estimates that 71% of the mail solicitations contain an introductory offer, some of which are 0% APR for a certain number of months.