2014 TSYS Survey Shows Bank Debit Preference Down!

After tremendous growth the last 10 years, the TSYS 2014 Consumers Payments Study shows the debit card fell as the primary payment choice in 2014.  Community and regional banks who rely heavily on debit use for revenue and payment relevance should pay close attention to these sea changes.

                                         Source: TSYS 2014 Payments Survey

 What are the reasons? 

1) The report shows that consumers now use many cards and ways to pay, and the loss of debit use was split over many categories and cards.  Banks issue the customer one debit card but they use many cards for payment and budgeting, and clarity about overdraft fees.

2) 83% of consumers report they are aware of recent retail and online payment breaches.  We see the debit card as failing to meet the protection needs of consumers as credit cards increased in online purchases while debit fell.

3) Credit cards increases the ability of the consumer to control the timing of when they fund the transaction by allowing the option of paying the purchase amount off immediately or having more time.

Savvy bankers will see the key to driving debit use and growth are to provide multiple debit card payment types like our PaySound^® companion card strategy for budgeting and security control by the consumer, and to offer transaction liquidity as with our PaySound Checking Plan.  Check revenues are not growing because transactions are leaking away, and strategies like PaySound drive revenue growth, relationships and payment relevance.