More consumers count on debit

by. Terry Dooley

The recently released 2013 Federal Reserve Payments Study found that debit and credit card payments grew at an annual rate of nearly 8 percent between 2009 and 2012. Debit and credit now account for more than two-thirds of non-cash transactions, with debit card payments increasing more than any other payment type during the three-year period.

Not surprisingly, payments by check continued to decline – falling to less than half the number a decade ago.

“The growth picture is with cards, debit, credit, and prepaid,” said James McKee, senior vice president in the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s Retail Payments Office, in an interview with Digital Transactions News.

Although card use may have replaced check use for certain payments, the increase in the number of card payments has far exceeded the decline in the number of check payments. Meaning check payments continue to make up a significant portion of non-cash transactions. In fact, more than 18 billion checks were deposited in the U.S. last year, one in six as an electronic image rather than paper.

The study concluded that nearly 123 billion non-cash payments with a value of $79 trillion were made in 2012 (excluding wire transfers), up from $72 trillion in 2009.

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