Credit card rewards are more than a travel perk. For hardworking families across Florida, they are part of how households manage their budget.
As retailers project another expensive back-to-school shopping season, new analysis from the Electronic Payments Coalition shows Florida consumers redeem rewards as cash back to help manage everyday expenses, with redemption rising in July and August as families make back-to-school purchases.
Recent data from the Electronic Payments Coalition shows Florida households redeemed $4.28 billion in credit card rewards in 2024 — including $563 million redeemed by households earning under $65,100.
Cash back made up $1.95 billion of that statewide total, more than any other reward type.
According to the National Retail Federation, families with K-12 students are expected to spend an average of $146 on school supplies this year, with total back-to-school spending projected to increase nearly 10 percent over last year. Those higher costs come as some of the nation’s largest retailers continue reporting strong revenue growth and commanding trillion-dollar market valuations.
Working families in Florida redeemed an average of $314 in credit card rewards in 2024 – roughly 2.2 times what a family spends on school supplies for the year, or about 2.6 weeks of groceries.
Rewards provide meaningful financial value across the income spectrum. Working families redeem rewards at virtually the same rate as higher-income households. Expressed as a share of income, the boost from rewards is three to four times larger for working families than for the highest earners.
The findings also underscore what’s at stake as Congress considers legislation that would reshape the credit card marketplace. At the very moment families are relying on rewards to help stretch household budgets, policymakers are weighing proposals that could reduce the revenue that helps make those rewards possible.
