2021 Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment Choice

In October 2021, US consumers reported making 36 payments per month on average, up about one payment from 2020. As a share of all payments by number, most payments were by debit card (29 percent) or credit card (28 percent). By value, 40 percent of payments value was made electronically from a bank account using one of two ACH methods and 35 percent were made using a card (debit, credit, or prepaid). For 2021, the Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment Choice found the following: • The total value of payments, around $4,800, increased 10 percent from 2020, a change that is not statistically significant. • Most changes in the number and value of payments by payment instrument (paper, card, electronically from a bank account) were not statistically significant, except for the decline in the number of check payments from 2.3 per month in 2020 to 1.5 in 2021 and the increase in the total dollar value of debit card payments from $516 to $811 ($288). • Eighty-five percent of consumers reported that they had used cash in the past 30 days, up from 82 percent in 2020, but not a statistically significant change. • The share of purchases made remotely remained about 20 percent in 2021, the same as in 2020 and double the share of remote purchases in 2019. • Two-thirds of consumers reported that they had adopted an online payment account, for example, PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle, a statistically significant increase from 61 percent in 2020. • One-third of consumers reported that they had been offered to make a purchase using buy now, pay later in the prior 30 days. • Ownership of crypto assets doubled to 9 percent of US consumers.