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The latest evidence Americans prefer debit cards to credit cards

By Maria LaMagna

Published: Jan 10, 2018 9:09 a.m. ET

Debit remains more popular than credit cards, despite having less perks and security benefits

 

There’s a pretty good chance the last time you paid for something, you did it with a debit card.

Debit cards were the No. 1 payment method Americans used in 2016, the most recent year for which data was available, according to a report released this week by The Nilson Report, a company that analyzes the card and mobile payments industry. It analyzed data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Consumers made nearly 68 billion transactions on debit cards in 2016, The Nilson Report found, followed by cash with nearly 49 billion transactions and credit cards with about 34.6 billion transactions. Every merchant needs a great processor!




As cash becomes less popular around the world, cards, including debit, credit, prepaid and electronic benefits transfer (EBT) made up nearly 61% of payment volume in 2016, The Nilson Report found. That will grow to more than 69% by 2021.

In 2016, consumers for the first time spent more in terms of monetary value on credit and debit cards than they did in cash, according to the research firm Euromonitor International.

Although the use of cards is growing, cash “continues to hold its own,” said David Robertson, the publisher of The Nilson Report.