5 Billion Reasons to Use Your Debit Card

It is a proven fact that over the past five years consumers have chosen to use debit cards as their preferred payment of choice.

That’s right. Debit cards have been used more than the ever popular credit cards, cash and checks.

According to online resources, it is estimated that debit cards are preferred by most consumers because:

• They are easy to use;
• They are safe and secure;
• You can pay with their own money;
• Because there is “no annual fee” assessed;
• Because they provide access to cash.

Debit cards growth has come largely due to POS (Point-of-Sale) transactions and fall into two types of categories: signature and PIN secured debit cards. Both types of cards draw on funds in a consumer’s deposit account.

Debit card holders can choose whether to authorize a POS debit card purchase with a signature or by entering their cutomized PIN number, which then determines which type of payment network will process the transaction, i.e. a branded network or ATM/EFT network (Electronic Funds Transfer).

There is expected to be an overwhelming, 5 BILLION debit cards in usage by the year 2012.