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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 ...
Report
The 2010 Survey of Consumer Payment Choice: Technical Appendix
This document serves as the technical appendix to the 2010 Survey of Consumer Payment Choice. The Survey of Consumer Payment Choice (SCPC) is an annual study designed primarily to study the evolving attitudes to and use of various payment instruments by consumers over the age of 18 in the United States. The main report, which introduces the survey and discusses the principal economic results, can be found here. In this data report, we detail the technical aspects of the survey design, implementation, and analysis.
Report
Use of Checks in Selected Countries
This report presents a snapshot of check use as a means of payment in 20 countries from 2012 to 2021. Using charts and tables, we analyze the share of checks as a fraction of cashless payments, both in terms of volume and value and the average value of a check in US dollars based on purchase power parity (PPP) exchange rates. Then we examine and compare the rates of decline in the use of checks during the period 2012 to 2021 and the correlations between the use of checks and other cashless payments, both in terms of volume and value.
Report
The 2010 Survey of Consumer Payment Choice: Summary Results
In 2010, the number of consumer payments increased nearly 9 percent from 2009 as economic activity began to rebound from the financial crisis and recession. Cash payments by consumers, which had increased sharply in 2009, did not fall back but rather grew another 3 percent in 2010. However, the share of cash payments, the dollar amount of cash withdrawals, and cash holdings by consumers decreased moderately in 2010. Credit card payments by consumers increased 15 percent, reversing more than half the 2009 decline, and the steady trend decline in paper check payments by consumers continued. ...
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 ...
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
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, ...
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 ...
Report
The 2016 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice, Research Data Report No. 17-7
This paper describes key results from the 2016 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice (DCPC), the third in a series of diary surveys that measure payment behavior through the daily recording of U.S. consumers' spending. In October 2016, consumers paid mostly with cash (31 percent of payments), debit cards (27 percent), and credit cards (18 percent). These instruments accounted for 76 percent of the number of payments, but only 34 percent of the total value of payments, because they tend to be used more for smaller-value payments. Electronic payments accounted for 43 percent of the value of payment ...