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Data for today’s episode is provided by Mercator Advisory Group’s Blog – 2020 North American PaymentsInsights: Debit – Continued Change
Debit Usage Trends:
- The trend toward lower debit usage, which began in 2012 (66%), continued in 2020 with 49% of consumers using debit.
- The decline in debit usage is most severe among consumers who earn less than $50,000 a year: down to 51% in 2020 from 57% in 2019.
- 18-34 year olds are the least likely to use a debit card: only 40%.
- 65+ year olds are most likely to use a debit card: 54%.
- When shopping in-store, most consumers (46%) prefer to use a credit card over a debit card (30%).
- Cash saw a slight decline for in-store purchases in 2020: 14%, down from 17% in 2019.
About Report
Mercator Advisory Group’s most recent consumer survey report, 2020 North American PaymentsInsights: Debit – Continued Change, from the bi-annual North American PaymentsInsights series, takes an in-depth look at U.S. consumers’ current attitudes and behaviors with regard to debit cards and P2P payments.
While the data from this survey indicate a decrease in the number of debit users, actual debit card volume is increasing in the pandemic era.
Nearly one-half of the consumers surveyed report they currently receive rewards on their debit cards. Many consumers who receive debit card rewards say it motivates them to spend more on these cards. However, while the primary rewards are cash back and/or points, the proportion of customers receiving these two rewards appears to be decreasing when compared with last year.
Debit card fraud is on the rise with one-quarter of debit card owners reporting fraud on their debit card. While this is on par with last year, it is much higher than the 17% reported in 2018.
The use of P2P payment apps continues to gain in popularity. In 2017, 57% of American adults reported using a P2P service. That has increased to 70% in 2020. The market is currently dominated by PayPal, but other P2P services, Venmo, Zelle, Google Pay and Square Cash, have all roughly doubled in reported usage since 2017.
This year, the average frequency of use of P2P services has decreased from 9.0 in 2019 to 8.0 transactions annually. This decline has likely been a result of the pandemic, as fewer people are socializing and thus have fewer opportunities to use P2P payments.
This report explores how technology and fraud impact consumers lives and, in particular, the way they shop and pay for things. This includes detail on not only what they do, but also how they feel about these two important consumer issues.
“This report reveals how consumers use of debit cards and P2P payments have changed over the past year. It goes without saying that they pandemic has materially changed consumer payment behavior, but this report explores changes that are pandemic related, as well as those shifts in behavior that started before the pandemic,” stated the author of the report, Peter Reville, director of Primary Research Services at Mercator Advisory Group, which includes the North American PaymentsInsights series.