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Data for today’s episode is provided by Mercator Advisory Group’s Report: 2021 North American PaymentsInsights: U.S. COVID-19 Update and GPR Prepaid Cards Update
U.S. Consumers’ Changing Use of Payment Types During COVID-19:
- 45% of consumers use charge cards more because of the pandemic; 14% use them less.
- 38% of consumers use reloadable prepaid cards more because of the pandemic; 11% use them less.
- 31% of consumers use credit cards more because of the pandemic; 8% use them less.
- 29% of consumers use debit cards more because of the pandemic; 6% use them less.
- Unlike other payment types, cash and checks saw higher percentages of consumers using them less instead of more.
- 27% of consumers use cash less because of the pandemic; 19% use it more.
- 20% of consumers use checks less because of the pandemic; 14% use them more.
About Report
Mercator Advisory Group’s most recent report, 2021 North American PaymentsInsights: U.S. COVID-19 Update and GPR Prepaid Cards Update, summarizes the effects of COVID-19 on the payments industry: how the market reacted to the pandemic, what impact it had on the payments industry, and its effect on credit card payments. In addition to providing insights into the state of the payments industry during the pandemic, the report also showcases data on general-purpose reloadable (GPR) cards: what consumers think about prepaid cards and which incentives make consumers more inclined towards certain types of these cards.
The report is based on the North American PaymentsInsights survey administered between August 27 and September 14, 2021, across a representative sample of 3000 consumers ages 18 years or older in the U.S. and 1000 consumers ages 18 years or older in Canada.
“Through the survey data, we have seen some interesting influences of COVID on the increased consumer use of online and mobile banking in comparison to the use of ATMs.” stated Pragya Khanal, an analyst working on the report.
