Search Results
Report
Consumer Payment Choice for Bill Payments
Why do U.S. consumers pay their bills the way they do? Using data from a recent diary of consumer payment behavior, we find that the type of bill consumers are paying and how they are paying (online or automatically) are important factors in determining the payment method, in addition to the dollar value of the bill and the demographic and income profile of the individual who is paying. In contrast, dollar value and demographic attributes are found to be the most important factors determining the payment instrument chosen for purchases. Consumer choices for bill payments are somewhat ...
Journal Article
Payment Card Adoption and Payment Choice
Using data from the 2021 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice, this article investigates two questions: how do consumers without credit or debit cards make payments, and do consumers without these payment cards differ from other consumers?
Report
Financial Inclusion and Consumer Payment Choice
This report examines similarities and differences among three groups of consumers: those without a checking or savings account (unbanked), bank account adopters who have used alternative financial services (AFS) in the past 12 months (underbanked), and bank account adopters who did not use AFS in the past 12 months (fully banked). Consumers in the three groups have different demographic characteristics, income, and payment behaviors: • The payment behavior of the underbanked is similar to that of the fully banked.• Unbanked consumers make fewer payments per month than the fully banked and ...
Working Paper
How People Pay Each Other: Data, Theory, and Calibrations
Using a representative sample of the U.S. adult population, we analyze which payment methods consumers use to pay other consumers (p2p) and how these choices depend on transaction and demographic characteristics. We additionally construct a random matching model of consumers with diverse preferences over the use of different payment methods for p2p payments. The random matching model is calibrated to the share of p2p payments made with cash, paper check, and electronic technologies observed from 2015 to 2019. We find about two thirds of consumers have a first p2p payment preference of cash. ...
Report
Personality Traits and Financial Outcomes
Surveys indicate that about 4.5 percent of US households do not have a bank account and about one-quarter do not own any credit cards. Among credit cardholders, revolving credit card debt (carrying unpaid balances) is common. Using data from the 2021 Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment Choice and the University of Southern California’s Understanding America Study, this paper looks at whether self-reported personality traits have a significant effect on these financial outcomes when the analysis considers consumers’ income, demographics, and financial literacy. Specifically, it studies ...
Report
The 2015 Survey of Consumer Payment Choice: summary results
The 2015 Survey of Consumer Payment Choice (SCPC) was implemented using a new longitudinal panel, the Understanding America Study (UAS), and results are not yet comparable to the 2008?2014 SCPC. In 2015, U.S. consumers made 68.9 payments per month. Debit cards remained the most popular payment instrument among U.S. consumers in 2015, accounting for 32.5 percent of their monthly payments, followed by cash (27.1 percent) and credit or charge cards (21.3 percent). For nonbills, consumers used cash and debit equally?about one-third of the time for each. For bills, consumers used payment cards for ...
Report
2018 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice
This paper describes key results from the 2018 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice (DCPC), the fifth in a series of diary surveys that measure payment behavior through the daily recording of the spending of U.S. consumers. The DCPC is the only diary survey of U.S. consumer payments with data and results that are available to the public without a fee. In October 2018, consumers made more payments with debit cards than with any other payment instrument (28 percent of payments). Cash, in all prior diary years the most-used payment instrument, followed with 26 percent of payments. Together with ...
Report
2020 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice
This paper describes key results from the 2020 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice (DCPC), the seventh in a series of diary surveys that measure payment behavior through the daily recording of consumer spending and payments in the United States. The DCPC is the only diary survey of US consumer payments with data and results that are available to the public free of charge. In October 2020, US consumers made most of their payments with debit cards, credit cards, and cash. Together, they accounted for three-quarters of all payments by number and one-third by value. In the pandemic year 2020, ...
Research on Paying with Cash and Checks
The United States is a land of many firsts: first flight in an airplane (1903). First person on the moon (1969). First email sent (1971). First nation to go fully paperless for payments? Not so likely.
Report
2021 Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment Choice
In October 2021, US consumers reported making 36 payments per month on average, up about one payment from 2020. As a share of all payments by number, most payments were by debit card (29 percent) or credit card (28 percent). By value, 40 percent of payments value was made electronically from a bank account using one of two ACH methods and 35 percent were made using a card (debit, credit, or prepaid). For 2021, the Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment Choice found the following: • The total value of payments, around $4,800, increased 10 percent from 2020, a change that is not statistically ...