The latest Insight Summary Report from Mercator Advisory Group’s CustomerMonitor Survey Series reveals that 65% of all respondents and 78% of young adults aged 18 to 34 use online payment services such as PayPal, Google Checkout, Pay by Amazon, and others accessible online and in app by mobile devices and more have been doing so since 2014. Rising use of alternative financial services, particularly online payment services and person-to-person payments may begin to disrupt debit card usage in the United States although current use remains steady overall. The report, U.S. Consumers and Debit: Signs of Displacement, presents the findings of an online survey of 3,009 U.S. adults conducted in June 2016.
Online payment services are used for more than just online purchases. In fact, the survey finds that 30% of consumers who use online payment services, use it to make purchases in a merchant’s physical location and 27% use it to transfer money to family or friends, both uses up steadily from 22% who did so in 2014. Another growing use is for paying household bills and for more convenient payment from mobile devices. As consumers make a greater share of purchases online and by mobile using a wider range of payment options, credit cards are often preferred to debit cards online. And with the rising use of online payment services, consumers may start to bypass traditional payment cards and keep funds in their payment service rather than transfer it back to their checking account.
“Consumers’ rising use of online payment services may signal some type of payment disruption. While experts agree that debit volumes are still rising, we see signs of displacement with growing use of alternative financial services and intermediaries from online payment services,” states the author of the report, Karen Augustine, senior manager of Primary Data Services at Mercator Advisory Group, which includes the CustomerMonitor Survey Series.
The report is 84 pages long and contains 36 exhibits.
Companies mentioned
in the report include:Amazon,
American Express, BillMeLater, Bitcoin, Discover, Dwolla, Google,
Facebook, MasterCard, MoneyGram, PayPal, PeoplePay, PopMoney,
Square, Venmo, Visa, Walmart, and Western Union.