Twice as many online shoppers believe credit cards are more secure than debit cards

It is well known that shoppers tend to behave differently online than they do in brick-and-mortar stores — and this extends to how they choose to pay at checkout.

One of the more notable differences is their tendency to favor credit cards online and other options such as digital wallets over debit cards. What’s more remarkable is the resistance to using debit online even though debit use overall has been growing during the pandemic — a phenomenon attributed to the economic anxieties and budgetary concerns it has engendered.

PYMNTS’ latest research report, Online Security And The Debit-Credit Divide, a PYMNTS collaboration with Elan based on a survey of 2,466 U.S. consumers, offers an in-depth examination of how and why consumers choose to pay online. These questions have vital significance amid the unprecedented shift to online commerce since last March. The report finds that 45 percent of U.S. consumers have shifted to digital shopping channels to purchase retail products, a fourfold increase since the start of the pandemic.

 

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