The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has posted a paper that provides data on consumer use of nine payment devices: PAPER INSTRUMENTS [four: cash, checks, money orders, and travelers checks], PAYMENT CARDS [three: credit cards, debit cards, and prepaid cards] and ELECTRONIC PAYMENT INSTRUMENTS [two: online banking bill payments and electronic bank account deductions].
Some observations from the 2008 data:
1) consumers make nearly 53% of their monthly payments with a "payment card" (page 2)
2) consumers use debit cards more frequently than they use cash, checks, or credit cards individually (page 2)
3) paper instruments (cash, checks, money orders, and travelers checks) account for approximately 37% of consumer payments (page 2)
4) the average American household had monthly credit cards charges of almost $900 in 2007 (approximately 12-13% of average household income) (page 7)
5) payments by check in America (consumers, businesses, and governments) declined 27% between 2000 and 2006 (page 7)
6) during that same period, debit card use in America increased just over 200% (page 7)
7) over 90% of consumers continue to use checks as a form of payment (page 9)
8) approximately 53% of consumers use online banking bill payments (page 9)
9) the average American consumer has $79 in cash on his or her person (page 9)
10) the average American consumer makes just over 75 payments in a typical month (page 10)
The paper is available here.
Where can i have more info on this ?
Regards
After hearing people argue over the environmental costs of "paper"
versus "plastic" during my lunch hour, I'd like to understand the
relative environmental costs of plastic grocery store bags versus
paper grocery store bags.