Debit Cards Outpace Credit Cards

Visa, USA reports that for the first time the number of purchases with debit cards outpaced the purchases made with credit cards. Visa has a good deal of evidence, since it processed 3.04 billion debit card transactions in the first half of this year and "only" 2.96 billion credit card transactions. Visa's study found that consumers had twice as many credit cards as debit cards. However, 60 percent of consumers preferred to carry debit cards rather than a supply of cash, and 48 percent opted for debit cards rather than carry checks. A primary motive appeared to be that they saved time at the checkout counter. In addition, consumers found that they were much more aware of how much they were spending.