Discover Card Is Tops With Web Shoppers

The most popular card for paying for online shopping is the Discover card, according to a survey of consumers' preferences for paying for Internet shopping. Brittain Associates Inc. (an Atlanta-based research and consulting firm) surveyed 3,000 consumers in March of this year and found that Discover had jumped to first place from fourth last year. Last year's winner, First USA, tumbled all the way to sixth in the current survey.

Increasing the "wallet share" of transactions has long been the objective of card issuers and is the rationale for rewards programs that offer cash rebates, frequent flyer miles and merchandise credit. But, the Brittain survey reveals this factor is even more important for Internet transactions. Bruce Brittain, president of Brittain Associates, told the American Banker "Over half those surveyed say they always use the same card online. Then we ask, 'Whose is it", and that is where Discover comes out on top."

Two factors may have contributed to Discover's rising popularity among web-shoppers. The cash back feature is important to those shoppers who prefer, for convenience and record keeping, to put all of their online purchases on one card. Plus, Discover's parent company, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, has invested in the digital wallet provider Brodia, which developed an electronic wallet for Discover cardholders. The device appeals to security-conscious consumers by letting cardholders send a one-time-use number in place of their full account number to e-merchants.