Credit Cards vs. Debit Cards

Since being widely introduced during the 1990s, debit cards have become very popular with consumers and have firmly established themselves as a vital part of the nation’s payment system. The popularity of debit cards reflects the growing use of plastic by consumers. Credit and debit card purchases of retail goods and services vaulted past cash and checks in 2003. The growth in debit card volume has been accelerated by the recession, as consumers try to protect themselves from the temptation to overspend and card issuers have become less generous with their pricing and benefits offered in order to cope with high default rates. With greater industry focus on the debit market, we were interested in finding out how consumers use credit and debit cards.

In this issue of Cardbeat, we examine how consumers’ payment methods have changed in the past year and reasons why they have changed; what percent of their monthly purchases are made using each payment method; what payment methods consumers choose for different price ranges and purchase scenarios; how many transactions they make monthly on their debit card versus credit card and how much they spend on each; their perceptions of credit cards versus debit cards; and how well each of these payment methods performs as a tool to help consumers manage their finances.

As a separate topic, we look at how much consumers trust different types of institutions/professions (i.e., local banks, credit card companies, lawyers, and doctors) and how their trust in each has changed in the past year.

Data included in this report were gathered using a web survey administered to 403 credit card users in the U.S. during July 2009.