The 2015 Survey of Consumer Payment Choice: Summary Results

Abstract

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 half of bill payments and electronic payments from bank accounts for one-quarter of bill payments. In 2015, U.S. consumers on average held $202 in cash (on person and stored on property, large values excluded). Use of new payment technologies was still relatively rare. Just over 1 percent of consumers had a Venmo account in 2015. About half a percent of U.S. consumers held bitcoin or other virtual currencies.

Keywords: cash, payment preferences, electronic payments, credit cards, Survey of Consumer Payment Choice, prepaid cards, unbanked, checks, checking accounts, debit cards

JEL Classification: D12, E42, D14