Debit card spending to overtake cash this year

Debit card spending will overtake cash as a method of payment this year, according to Visa Europe, the card processor.

Debit card transactions rose by 10 per cent last year, according to the group, which is owned by the banks for which it processes payments.

It means that 77 per cent of its business was now done with debit cards, rather than credit cards, the use of which stalled over the past year.

Total card spending at “points of sale” was up 3.7 per cent to £746 billion, Visa Europe said. The busiest day for spending was December 23, when consumers performed more than 20 million transactions and spent more than £1 billion – up 28 per cent on the same day in 2008.

The recession has meant that consumers are increasingly using debit cards to pay for purchases, rather than build up debt on credit cards, Visa said.

At the same time consumers have been reluctant to pay booking fees for payment with a credit card. Retailers are barred from making such charges on debit card transactions, but justify the credit card levies on the grounds that they are passing on so-called interchange fees charged by banks.

Internet shopping has also accelerated the rise of debit card use, with a quarter of all Visa spending in the UK conducted online over the Christmas period and 20 per cent for the year as a whole.

“The growth in e-commerce is really staggering. The proportion has doubled in four years,” said Peter Ayliffe, chief executive of Visa Europe.

December internet spending across Europe on Visa cards was up 37 per cent.

Source: NEWS SOURCE

Personally, I don't like this.

I'm always uncomfortable with the thought of using something to pay for something if I don't have the cash on me. I can understand if it is for internet purchases, but for little things like movies, shopping, eating out, ect.? I don't like that.
For two reasons:
1.) It makes it easier for people to fall into debt. If we all used cash, this wouldn't happen as much: you can't spend what you don't have when it comes to cash. With cards, it just keeps going up like a tab.

2.) It makes conversion from multiple economies into one easier. If we all are going off electronic money, not material money, than a switch to one currency is much, much easier.

Basically, I'm uncomfortable with the fact that so many people are comfortable with using cards over cash.

Just my $0.02.

The only thing to be worried about is fees for USING the debit card and new ways of electronically stealing money.

Also, it seems kind of hard to keep track of how much a person is truly taking out of your bank account when using a debit card.

Double charges, extra tips, etc.

Then again, bad people will always find a way to exploit things. As a society, we must make things easier for all and then deal with the bad as they come.

Everything is becoming electronic. I don't do cheques anymore and cash is for small value, ad hoc items - like a pint in the pub. Everything else is debit card payments.

I think it is very convenient, except when the bank decided to stop my card at a petrol stration. Not my fault (someone had attempted to use my numbers on an online gambling site), but it was a pain to clear up.

Regards

Not too sure I like this idea; what about those of us with bad credit? Will we be even able to recieve debit cards? What about "private transactions"? ought everybody to buy a machine that will "read and scan" your card? Plus, this will increase dependency on whomever will regulate these services, which you can bet the GOV'T will have its hand in.

Man, they're SO eager to maintain control/comfort that they cannot even see the oppurtunity to free themselves from the horrible chains to which they are bound.

Originally posted by RadiatorOfTheLight
Not too sure I like this idea; what about those of us with bad credit? Will we be even able to recieve debit cards? What about "private transactions"? ought everybody to buy a machine that will "read and scan" your card? Plus, this will increase dependency on whomever will regulate these services, which you can bet the GOV'T will have its hand in.

If you can open a personal checking account, a debit card is usually free. If your credit is so bad that you can't get a checking account, well you probably couldn't get a credit card anyway unless it was one of those 500% interest secured cards.

Nobody is saying cash is going away (unless you are talking about its value, but that is for another thread), but it's more of a statement of people no longer using credit cards, and using money they actually have by cash or debit.

In my experience locally, Americans are so used to the idea of not using cash, that I get funny looks all the time for using it. A cashier at Lowes at 8 pm has told me I was the FIRST person that day to pay in cash. I pay attention to people around me all the time. Whenever I go to the supermarket, I see everyone around me uses cards....I would estimate up to 90 % usage and no one thinks twice about it....huge job was done at brainwashing...main agenda is of course to track ALL transactions or at least have a record on them.

What will happen when a lot of people default? Which they will.

The trouble is that people have been brainwashed into thinking it is OK to buy stuff they can't afford (and do not need, usually) by the money lenders.

Huge interest amasses and people lose their homes.

I hope these usurers can live in several homes at once because they will then own them and no-one will be able to afford to buy them.

And meanwhile people are starving.

What a corrupt society we live in - total corruption, then the end. Amen.

Debit Cards are a good idea.

They offer the same convenience (like online purchases) and fraud protection that you get with a credit card. But since you are using your own money there is no chance of running into debt, or defaulting.

Everyone should ditch their credit cards for debit cards!

Originally posted by learningtofly
What will happen when a lot of people default? Which they will.

The trouble is that people have been brainwashed into thinking it is OK to buy stuff they can't afford (and do not need, usually) by the money lenders.

Huge interest amasses and people lose their homes.

I hope these usurers can live in several homes at once because they will then own them and no-one will be able to afford to buy them.

And meanwhile people are starving.

What a corrupt society we live in - total corruption, then the end. Amen.

You are not reading. Debit cards are not credit cards. Their names denote what they do and pay it.

Debit cards aren't much of a problem outside of using it when you don't have enough cash. Then you get hit with a fee, but certainly not something that would crush someone financially unless they were already on the knife's edge.

reply to post by KrazyJethro


Thanks for telling me I am not reading.

It is the people on the knife-edge who use debit cards the most.

I only use debit.. why?

I loose my cash. Like, where did it go? .. Then 5 years later I find a pair of jeans with a $20, coins every where.. dollar bills getting lost in the wash..

I spend my cash. I always felt that if I had cash on me, I was more inclined to spend it..

I hate getting cash back. Sometimes the idiots at the checkout count it back wrong. I get a handful of change (99 cents) .. wtf am I supposed to do with it?

Debit is faster.

I cannot go negative with my debit card.

I can only spend whats there.

I can buy online with it, which saves money.

I can earn points with it.

I hate cash. (I don't like to touch it...... it's gross. Especially change.)

[edit on 1/21/2010 by Rockpuck]

Originally posted by learningtofly
What will happen when a lot of people default? Which they will.

The trouble is that people have been brainwashed into thinking it is OK to buy stuff they can't afford (and do not need, usually) by the money lenders.

Huge interest amasses and people lose their homes.

I hope these usurers can live in several homes at once because they will then own them and no-one will be able to afford to buy them.

And meanwhile people are starving.

What a corrupt society we live in - total corruption, then the end. Amen.

huh???

Debit cards link to bank accounts. The person is using his/her own money. How can you default on your own money??