Californians Are Charging Headlong Into the Holidays

Californians are expected to be the most active credit card consumers again this holiday season, charging more than $15.6 billion, according to CardWeb.com, a credit card research firm.

Nationwide, consumers are expected to charge a record $126.5 billion on both credit and debit cards this season, the company said.

For credit cards alone, that’s about $3.7 billion a day nationwide, or $154 million an hour, during the 29-day period between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Most of that spending will go through Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express, which together will account for nearly $93 billion in charges.

On the heaviest days--Nov. 26 and 27 and Dec. 24--consumers will swipe their cards more than 7,000 times per second nationwide, generating nearly $500,000 per second.