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Data for this episode of Truth In Data provided by Mercator Advisory Group’s report – U.S. Consumers and Debit: Fewer Use It for Purchases
- 68% of consumers have heard of the cryptocurrency, which leaves 32% of the market ambilevous
- Only about half that number (35%) claim to “know” it, up from 31% the year prior (2017)
- In 2018, 6% of consumers opened a Bitcoin wallet; up from 5% in 2017, but down from a peak of 10% in 2015
- In 2016 & 2017, 56% of crypto owners used it for online purchases. In 2018, only 48% of owners purchased with it
- In 2018, 31% of crypto owners claim to use it as an investment
- But a recent dramatic increase in crypto use to pay friends and family (45% in 2018, up from 25% in 2016) & to pay household bills (35% in 2018 up from 11% in 2016)
- And a massive shift towards privacy: 29% to pay for gambling and private services in 2018 up from 4% in 2016
About this report
The latest Insight Summary Report from Mercator Advisory Group’s CustomerMonitor Survey Series reveals that 54% of all respondents use debit cards for purchases and that figure has declined steadily since 2011, the year following the enactment of the Durbin Amendment. The report, U.S. Consumers and Debit: Fewer Use It for Purchases, presents the findings of an online survey of 3,002 U.S. adults conducted in June 2018.
While consumer ownership of debit cards remains strong and people who have recently opened a checking account are even more likely than average to own a debit card for transactions, the percentage of all U.S. consumers and even those that own debit cards who report using their debit card for transactions is declining.
Today, more U.S. consumers, especially seniors are more likely to use credit cards than any other payments in stores. Young adults and adults whose annual household income is less than $75,000, however, are still more likely to use debit cards than credit cards in stores.
Only half of debit card users report using their card for online purchases. The perception of greater online security with credit cards (41%), fear of checking account compromise (30%), and lack of rewards when using debit cards (30%) are the main reasons consumers do not use debit cards online.
As U.S. consumers make a greater share of purchases online and by mobile using a wider range of payment options, they often prefer credit cards to debit cards online. And with the rising use of online payment services, consumers may start to bypass traditional payment cards and keep funds in their payment service rather than transfer it back to their checking account.
