Consumer Payments

In October 2022, US consumers reported making 39 payments per month on average, unchanged from 2021 when adjusted for questionnaire changes. As a share of all payments by number, most payments were by credit card (31 percent) or debit card (29 percent). By value, 43 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 2022, the Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment Choice found the following:

• The total value of payments per consumer per month was $5,029.
• Eighty-three percent of consumers reported that they had used cash in the past 30 days, down from 85 percent in 2021.
• Two-thirds of consumers had used an electronic way to pay from a bank account in the past 30 days, the same as in 2021.
• The share of purchases made remotely remained about 20 percent in 2022, the same as in 2021 and 2020 and double the share of remote purchases in 2019.
• Two-thirds of consumers reported that they had adopted an online payment account such as PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle.
• Almost half of consumers reported that they had been offered to make a purchase using buy now, pay later in the prior 30 days, up from one-third in 2021.
• Ownership of crypto assets was stable at about 10 percent of US consumers.

In 2022, a questionnaire change was introduced to help respondents remember to report all the payments they make. This report includes a description of this change and its effect. Interactive charts, showing payment use by transaction type and dollar value, card and nonbank account adoption by income, and recent use of a payment instrument by income are on the Atlanta Fed website, along with data for download, questionnaires, codebooks, and other resources for data users.