Fifty-three percent of consumers plan to use either their debit cards or cash for holiday shopping, and one out of three shoppers will use their credit cards to pay for gifts of more than $100, according to a new survey of 500 consumers released Thursday by Litle & Co., a Lowell-Mass.-based payments processing company.
The online, unscientific survey conducted by a third party for Litle & Co. also found that nearly 50% of all cardholders – including 73% of people with incomes more than $150,000 – said their primary motivation for using their credit cards is to earn awards and miles.
While 60% of the survey respondents own a tablet or smartphone, only one in four have shopped and made purchases with their mobile devices, the company said. But of those who do, the bullseye price point is $20-$100, which accounted for 63% of those purchases.
Consumers apparently are not enamored yet with using their mobile devices at retailers' point of sale. The survey found 71% of consumers have never used a merchant's mobile device swipe service such as Square, Google Wallets or PayPal. What's more, only 8.6% of shoppers with smartphones think mobile wallets are going to change the payment world, according to the survey.
"Consumers are carefully choosing between using credit or debit/cash and it's no wonder given the current economic climate," said Ben Saren, vice president of marketing at Litle.
"They are making trade-offs between using their available funds rather than credit to defer payment but are evidently swayed by the chance to earn bonus awards and miles," Saren said. "Meanwhile, the number of shoppers transacting via their mobile devices is small, and really calls into question the consumer appetite for mobile payments."
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Peter Strozniak
Credit Union Times reporter covering credit union operations, fraud, M&As, leagues, business continuity, and breaking news.
