Hispanic Cardholders Like Debit Cards, Survey Finds

PURCHASE, N.Y. – Hispanic cardholders are just as likely to use debit cards as credit cards for high-end purchases in the $100 to $500 range, a new survey conducted by MasterCard International has found. The survey also found that debit is the payment option of choice for midrange purchases of between $50 and $100, including fine dining, weekly groceries, and department store purchases, compared with credit cards, checks, and cash. MasterCard attributed the popularity to convenience, safety, and widespread acceptance, and said that debit card usage increased 41% over the last two years, compared with checks (up 11%), while cash use declined 22%. The Hispanic Debit Cardholder Survey used 1,500 interviews of Hispanic-Americans with bank accounts in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and Miami to obtain a representative sample of how Hispanic consumers in the United States view and use debit cards, MasterCard said.