Reports: Consumer Spending, Chargebacks and a Global Banker Survey

By Roy Urrico

Finopotamus aims to highlight white papers, surveys and reports that provide a glimpse as to what is taking place and/or impacting credit unions and other organizations in the financial services industry.

The status of consumer spending, chargebacks and a global banker survey highlight a trio of reports.

Consumers Choose Staycations

Rising costs are causing consumers to rethink everything from summer travel to everyday spending decisions, according to a new survey from $355 million Littleton, Colo.-based Red Rocks Credit Union. Eighty-two percent of 300 respondents surveyed June 2-4 revealed the rising cost of living has hit their household finances at least somewhat this year, and more than half (52%) say it's hit “a lot.” That pressure cuts across income levels and generations. It's reaching almost everyone.

Darius Wise, CEO of Red Rocks Credit Union.

 “These numbers match what we hear from members across Arapahoe, Douglas, and Jefferson counties," said Darius Wise, CEO of Red Rocks Credit Union. "Coloradans aren't giving up on summer. They're getting resourceful. They're choosing the mountains over the airport and the campsite over the hotel, making real tradeoffs to do it. Our job is to understand what our members are actually up against, not what a national headline assumes, and to show up for them in ways that help.

Other findings include:

• When asked what's making summer travel harder, 78% of Coloradans pointed to gas prices, well ahead of everyday expenses eating into income (65%), food and dining (55%), hotels (49%), and airfare (48%).

• Eighty-five percent of Gen X respondents named gas as a barrier, the highest of any age group, and a sign that the households juggling kids, commutes, and aging parents are feeling every cent at the pump. The survey also shows a widening gap between those who get to travel and those who stay home.

• Among households earning under $50,000, 32% aren't traveling this summer at all, compared with just 13% of those earning over $100,000. Lower-income Coloradans were also nearly three times as likely to have already canceled a trip because of cost (23% versus 8%).

There's a generational divide, too. Millennials are the most likely to sit summer out: 35% say they aren't traveling at all, versus 18% of Gen Z, a sign of how hard the squeeze is hitting younger families balancing rent, debt, and young kids.

"Seeing it in the data is one thing. Doing something about it is the job," Wise said. "We run our Skip-A-Pay program twice a year, including this summer, so members can pause a loan payment when money gets tight. We've also given our frontline teams room to step in directly when someone comes in facing a real hardship. And as these costs stretch families further, we're looking hard at what more we can do, including ideas like gas assistance, for the members and the staff feeling it most. When your neighbors are squeezed, you find ways to show up for them."

Friendly Fraud is Rising

The 2026 Chargeback Field Report, a survey of more than 250 merchants from Tampa, Fla.-based Chargebacks911 found growing merchant losses, higher consumer prices and a significant gap between chargeback deflection and friendly fraud. “The chargeback system was created to protect consumers from legitimate fraud, and it’s still effective in that role,” claimed the report. However, for merchants, chargebacks now threaten revenue and business stability.

The 2026 Chargeback Field Report focuses on chargebacks, friendly fraud and post-transaction dispute management. The study analyzes how disputes affect businesses across industries, geographic markets, business models and revenue tiers, with a particular focus on card-not-present commerce.

Monica Eaton, founder and CEO of Chargebacks911.

 "Friendly fraud has moved from being a back-office inconvenience to a material business risk," said Monica Eaton, founder and CEO of Chargebacks911, which provides chargeback prevention and remediation technology. “It is influencing pricing, customer policies, staffing decisions and the economics of digital commerce.”

From the 2026 Chargeback Field Report:

• Thirty-eight percent of merchants say chargeback costs are influencing the prices of their goods or services, up from 32.5% in 2024.

• More than 83% of enterprise merchants report friendly fraud (illegitimate disputes) has increased over the past three years. Refund abuse now accounts for an estimated 27.1% of all returns.

• Nearly three-quarters of merchants describe friendly fraud as a “moderate” or “significant” concern.

• In many cases chargebacks’ effects pass on from merchants to their customers. More than 61% of respondents said chargebacks have increased over the past three years.

• Only about 34% of respondents say they have a dedicated chargeback team or department head, while fewer than 30% use any form of third-party assistance. These internal responsibilities often fall to employees in finance, operations or customer service who may not have specialized knowledge of card network regulations, evidence requirements or representment procedures.

• Transaction evidence also disperses across payment gateways, customer service platforms, customer relationship management systems, order management software and other data sources. Approximately 23.5% of merchants report using five or more separate tools to investigate disputes or compile representment evidence.

• Fewer than one in four merchants describe their teams as “very” up to date on card network rules. Small businesses report the lowest confidence, with just 17.4% saying they feel very informed.

"Chargebacks rarely cost merchants only the value of the original transaction," said Eaton. "Honest customers ultimately absorb part of that burden through higher prices or stricter policies." The cost of chargebacks can include lost merchandise, lost transaction revenue, chargeback fees, fraud-prevention expenses and the labor required to investigate and respond to disputes.

“Chargebacks rarely cost merchants only the value of the original transaction. Once all factors are considered, the financial impact can multiply quickly and honest customers ultimately absorb part of that burden through higher prices or stricter policies,” added Eaton. “Refund abuse adds even more pressure by exploiting the customer-friendly processes merchants put in place to prevent disputes.”

More than one-quarter of merchants, or 26.7%, say they currently use AI-based fraud prevention tools, while another 37% plan to adopt them. Combined, nearly two-thirds of respondents are either using or preparing to use AI in their fraud-prevention strategies.

Global Banker Survey

New York City-based Personetics, which features the Cognitive Banking Platform powering personalized engagement for financial institutions, released findings from its 2026 global banker survey, From Aspiration to Execution, a study of more than 900 banking executives across more than 30 countries. The study found a gap the industry between financial institutions that believe in generative AI (Gen AI), and the few that have actually deployed it.

Udi Ziv CEO at Personetics.

 “The report reveals that nearly 80% of global banking executives describe fully operationalized generative AI as a "significant" or "transformational" opportunity for their institutions, yet only 18% say that Gen AI is fully integrated into their day-to-day operations,” said Udi Ziv CEO at Personetics in the study. “Additionally, banking leaders recognize the need to link digital engagement to business outcomes, though most are converting less than half of that engagement into measurable ROI.”

Key findings from the report include:

1. Fragmented data is the real obstacle: Fifty-six percent of bankers cite data silos between business lines and 55% cite the inability to build a unified customer profile as the primary barrier to deriving actionable intelligence from customer transaction data. Only 11% blame a shortage of AI/machine learning capability.

2. Campaign-driven engagement is failing to convert: On average, only 42% of customer engagement is driven by what is actually happening in a customer's financial life. FIs convert just 53% of digital engagement into measurable business results, with 31% stuck below 50%.

3. Deployment timelines undermine relevance: The average bank takes 12 weeks to move a new personalized offer from concept to launch, a timeline that routinely outlasts the customer moment it was built for.