CHICAGO—With all the hype around mobile, what is the fastest-growing form of in-person payments?
The plain-old plastic card.
A recent Accenture survey shows the plastic card, at least for now, is winning the payments war. The Wall Street Journal reported that the study shows that plastic is the only form of consumer payments used to pay in person becoming more commonly used, versus cash, debit cards, and mobile phones.
“The percentage of people using cards weekly jumped from 50% in a survey last year to 53% this year. That contrasts to a flat 19% usage rate for mobile devices, and a slight drop from 59% to 58% for debit cards. Cash was the big loser, dropping from 67% to 60%,” The Journal reported.
Accenture stated that the trend reflects the stickiness of the credit card and the lack of enticing new features for contactless mobile phone payments