TD Bank: Holiday spending should hold steady

By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

The majority of consumers are expected to spend an average of $670 on holiday gifts, about the same as last year, according to a new shopping poll commissioned by TD Bank.

The poll found that 57 percent of respondents plan to spend about the same as last year; 28 percent plan to spend less, and 14 percent plan to spend more.

Nearly 40 percent of consumers surveyed said they plan to pay for gifts with a credit card; 31 percent with debit cards, and 28 percent with cash, said TD Bank, one of the largest retail banks in Massachusetts. The company operates dual headquarters in Maine and New Jersey. TD Bank is a unit of the Toronto-based TD Bank Group.

For its holiday shopping poll, TD Bank hired a public opinion firm to survey 1,807 consumers along the East Coast during October.

The poll found that 64 percent of those surveyed intend to purchase gift cards. TD Bank makes gift cards available to its customers and doesn’t charge them a purchase fee for the cards. Just over half of those surveyed said they would like to receive a gift card, and many said they would use the card to pay for every-day expenses such as gas and groceries.

At this time of year, there is no shortage of predictions on how consumers will behave this holiday shopping season. Consumer confidence and spending remain at recessionary levels as people fret about jobs and worry about the economy.

The National Retail Federation estimates US holiday sales will increase 2.8 percent this year, to $465.6 billion, compared with 2010. That is smaller than the 5.2 percent jump of last November and December, but still slightly better than the average growth in holiday sales over the past decade.