Its latest survey shows household spending dipped for the first time in four years last month with families "starting to feel the squeeze" as higher living costs eat into pay.
"Let's face it, we are skint," says commentator Justin Urquart-Stewart.
"Our card's maxed out, nothing in the savings account, pockets emptied out and nothing down the back of the sofa."
Visa said physical stores saw sales drop at their fastest pace for over five years in May, with sales down 5.3% year-on-year.
In contrast, spending at hotels and restaurants rose at an annual rate of 3.3%.
But even though so-called "experiences" spending rose, the figures suggest people are still being careful.
Josh Beer, from the Illustrious Pub Company, in Cambridgeshire, said: "More of our customers gravitated towards deals and offers in the past month, it feels as though they were biding their time, and cutting back until they became more confident in the economy."
The Visa figures show overall spending was 08% lower than in 2016, the first fall since September 2013.
The findings chime with official data from the Office for National Statistics, which shows that wage growth is falling back while inflation is rising, causing a squeeze on household incomes as they  fail to keep pace with shop prices.
The latest official figures showed wage growth behind inflation for the first time since mid-2014, and the Bank of England has said it expects this to get worse.
Average weekly earnings excluding bonuses increased by 2.1% in the three months to March, while inflation rose by 2.3% in the year to March 2017.
"Now is starts to hurt, with inflation above lower pay levels we will all start to feel poorer. As the consumer we have been the driver of the UK economic engine - and now you can hear it start to splutter," adds Mr Urquart-Stewart, co-founder of fund manager Seven Investment Management.
One of the chief reasons for inflation's rise is the steep fall in sterling since the UK voted to leave the European Union.
It is now worth between 11-15% less against the euro and the dollar, making anything we buy with our weaker currency more expensive.
That leaves shops with a dilemma, shred their often already paper-thin profit margins or raise prices.

Cheap miniature versions of the unmanned aircraft used by the military could fall into the wrong hands, he told the UK's Guardian newspaper.
Quarrelling neighbours, he suggested, might end up buzzing each other with private surveillance drones.
He also warned of the risk of terrorists using the new technology.
Mr Schmidt is believed to have close relations with US President Barack Obama, whom he advises on matters of science and technology.
"You're having a dispute with your neighbour," he told The Guardian in an interview printed on Saturday.
"How would you feel if your neighbour went over and bought a commercial observation drone that they can launch from their backyard. It just flies over your house all day. How would you feel about it?"
Warning of mini-drones' potential as a terrorist weapon, he said: "I'm not going to pass judgment on whether armies should exist, but I would prefer to not spread and democratise the ability to fight war to every single human being."
"It's got to be regulated... It's one thing for governments, who have some legitimacy in what they're doing, but have other people doing it... it's not going to happen."
Small drones, such as flying cameras, are already available worldwide, and non-military surveillance were recently introduced to track poachers in the remote Indian state of Assam.
The US and Israel have led the way in recent years in using drones as weapons of war as well as for surveillance.
America's Federal Aviation Administration is currently exploring how commercial drones, or unmanned aircraft systems, can be safely introduced into US airspace.
We're buying fewer clothes and pairs of shoes, although we're eating out more, according to credit card firm Visa.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
The influential head of Google, Eric Schmidt, has called for civilian drone technology to be regulated, warning about privacy and security concerns.