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Cards still account for less than 18% of US payments (source https://go.plaid.com/rs/495-WRE-561/images/Plaid-Modern-guide-to-ACH.pdf https://go.plaid.com/rs/49

Cards still account for less than 18% of US payments (source https://go.plaid.com/rs/495-WRE-561/images/Plaid-Modern-guide-to-ACH.pdf https://go.plaid.com/rs/495-WRE-561/images/Plaid-Modern-guid...).

sm4rk0 6y ago
However small you think that %-age is, the absolute numbers are still huge (src: Wikipedia): "100 billion transactions during 2014 with a total volume of US$6.8 trillion"
grawprog 6y ago
Bet those stats go way up in the next few months as more and more businesses get on the refusing cash bandwagon. Apparently it's for 'safety' but I live in a country where my money's made out of plastic or metal, that shit can be sprayed or dunked in iso. The excuse seems pretty flimsy too when again, places don't seem to bother cleaning off their pinpads before the cashiers or other customers touch them anyway.
- drewbug 6y ago
  The other 82% is ACH, not cash
- stevehawk 6y ago
  That stat won't change much in the US. It's illegal for a store to turn down cash.
  - jedberg 6y ago
    That's a myth: https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12772.htm https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12772.htm Private companies can refuse cash.
    - elliekelly 6y ago
      There’s no federal law but it’s not a myth. It varies by jurisdiction. Several states (New Jersey, Rhode Island, and I’m sure others) and cities (NYC and Philadelphia, for example) don’t allow a retail business to refuse cash.
    - fsckboy 6y ago
      if you owe a business money, you can pay the debt in cash.
      - ByteJockey 6y ago
        Correct, but if you want to buy something, you don't owe them anything yet. However, if you stole the thing and were ordered by the court to pay restitution, they would have to accept cash for that.
      - jedberg 6y ago
        Yes, but you don't owe them any money if you want to buy something. From the link: "There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services"
        fsckboy 6y ago
        but if you are going to quibble and point out myths and misconceptions, why not just tell the whole story instead of half of it. If you eat in a restaurant, and they tell you "cards only", you owe them money, and your cash is good. "good for all debts, public and private" has a meaning that is not vitiated by a "no cash" policy.
ur-whale 6y ago
18% is freakishly huge, we're talking about the whole of the US here. What's worse, if you look at the details, there is a swath of products that are darn near impossible to buy without a credit card.
- xur17 6y ago
  And it's important to remember that ACH is typically used to: * receive direct deposits * pay credit card bills * pay rent Which represent a large amount of the value transferred vs number of transactions.
DennisP 6y ago
Just to clarify, that says 18% of the value, not 18% of the number of transactions. From googling a few months ago, credit cards appeared to have the most transactions.
Laremere 6y ago
From your source "More than 82 percent of the value of all U.S. payments goes through ACH" Note that it's value, and not number of transactions. Personally, I have only 4 things pay out of my checking account. Mortgage, HOA dues, and power are all bills that require checking account transactions for auto-payment to avoid credit card fees. These are very large transactions which will greatly skew any measurement by value. The final thing paid out of my checking account is interesting: the credit card payment. Since any money I spend with my card necessarily is repaid from my checking account, that also greatly skews measurement by value. If I spent 50% on housing, and spent all of the rest of my money on things with my credit card, then my personal ACH value percentage would be 66%. (1 unit house payment, 1 unit credit card transactions, 1 unit paying credit card bill) This isn't even starting with business to business transactions. I'm unsure if the source is counting it in that metric, but it would further skew any value measurement. No factory is going to use credit card when buying $100,000 worth of parts from a supplier. All those things considered, 82% seems about right, even if you assume something like 90% of consumer transactions use credit card.
- random3 6y ago
  Yes. But considering Stripe and others charge 2.8% of transaction, it's the more relevant metric. I think the largest chunk of the volume difference is commercial-use. I don't have the numbers handy but the difference is huge.
- bretpiatt 6y ago
  > No factory is going to use credit card when buying $100,000 worth of parts from a supplier. I have a business who uses a credit card every month to buy more than $100,000 worth of materials from a supplier. On the consumption end the card programs are wonderful, great purchase protection negotiated, delay on actual payment for additional working capital, and rewards. We basically never have to use cash for employee travel expenses, all via points. There is no benefit for me paying my suppliers via ACH, wire, or check.
kyrra 6y ago
(Googler, opinions are my own) It really depends on the types of products and what the consumer experience is like. Google is an interesting beast in that we provide services across a wide variety of billing models. You have immediate product purchases, where knowing that the transactions is complete immediately can be important (ex: Play store games, or movies). Credit cards are great for that instant guarantee. For delayed billing or threshold billing (Ads), slower payment methods can work great (eg: ACH, wires, vouchers). Some of these also allow a standing instruction that a company that just keep paying money against to top-up their account (and Google will see it as a bank statement push payment). So yes, Credit Cards are a small volume of US payments, they enable specific products that don't work great with ACH or wires. If the US ever gets 100% ubiquitous instant bank push payments, maybe that'll change, but our banking system is too disjoint to move at any kind of speed to do this.
- random3 6y ago
  But there's Same Day ACH, right? Also the new RTP Network (https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/rtp https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/rtp) seems to get traction.
  - kyrra 6y ago
    RTP is definitely a step in the right direction. It's coverage is s around 50%, which is good. I'm hoping FedNOW pushes is the rest of the way. The clearing house is also owned by many of the large banks in the US. While this seems nice, I'm sure there's some paranoia from non owners about joining a network owned by their competition. The UK went and interesting path of forcing all banks to implement faster payments, so it got wide coverage.

Cards still account for less than 18% of US payments (source https://go.plaid.com/rs/495-WRE-561/images/Plaid-Modern-guide-to-ACH.pdf https://go.plaid.com/rs/495-WRE-561/images/Plaid-Modern-guid...).

sm4rk0 6y ago

However small you think that %-age is, the absolute numbers are still huge (src: Wikipedia): "100 billion transactions during 2014 with a total volume of US$6.8 trillion"

grawprog 6y ago

Bet those stats go way up in the next few months as more and more businesses get on the refusing cash bandwagon. Apparently it's for 'safety' but I live in a country where my money's made out of plastic or metal, that shit can be sprayed or dunked in iso. The excuse seems pretty flimsy too when again, places don't seem to bother cleaning off their pinpads before the cashiers or other customers touch them anyway.

drewbug 6y ago
The other 82% is ACH, not cash
stevehawk 6y ago
That stat won't change much in the US. It's illegal for a store to turn down cash.
- jedberg 6y ago
  That's a myth: https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12772.htm https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12772.htm Private companies can refuse cash.
  - elliekelly 6y ago
    There’s no federal law but it’s not a myth. It varies by jurisdiction. Several states (New Jersey, Rhode Island, and I’m sure others) and cities (NYC and Philadelphia, for example) don’t allow a retail business to refuse cash.
  - fsckboy 6y ago
    if you owe a business money, you can pay the debt in cash.
    - ByteJockey 6y ago
      Correct, but if you want to buy something, you don't owe them anything yet. However, if you stole the thing and were ordered by the court to pay restitution, they would have to accept cash for that.
    - jedberg 6y ago
      Yes, but you don't owe them any money if you want to buy something. From the link: "There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services"
      - fsckboy 6y ago
        but if you are going to quibble and point out myths and misconceptions, why not just tell the whole story instead of half of it. If you eat in a restaurant, and they tell you "cards only", you owe them money, and your cash is good. "good for all debts, public and private" has a meaning that is not vitiated by a "no cash" policy.

ur-whale 6y ago

18% is freakishly huge, we're talking about the whole of the US here. What's worse, if you look at the details, there is a swath of products that are darn near impossible to buy without a credit card.

xur17 6y ago
And it's important to remember that ACH is typically used to: * receive direct deposits * pay credit card bills * pay rent Which represent a large amount of the value transferred vs number of transactions.

DennisP 6y ago

Just to clarify, that says 18% of the value, not 18% of the number of transactions. From googling a few months ago, credit cards appeared to have the most transactions.

Laremere 6y ago

From your source "More than 82 percent of the value of all U.S. payments goes through ACH" Note that it's value, and not number of transactions. Personally, I have only 4 things pay out of my checking account. Mortgage, HOA dues, and power are all bills that require checking account transactions for auto-payment to avoid credit card fees. These are very large transactions which will greatly skew any measurement by value. The final thing paid out of my checking account is interesting: the credit card payment. Since any money I spend with my card necessarily is repaid from my checking account, that also greatly skews measurement by value. If I spent 50% on housing, and spent all of the rest of my money on things with my credit card, then my personal ACH value percentage would be 66%. (1 unit house payment, 1 unit credit card transactions, 1 unit paying credit card bill) This isn't even starting with business to business transactions. I'm unsure if the source is counting it in that metric, but it would further skew any value measurement. No factory is going to use credit card when buying $100,000 worth of parts from a supplier. All those things considered, 82% seems about right, even if you assume something like 90% of consumer transactions use credit card.

random3 6y ago
Yes. But considering Stripe and others charge 2.8% of transaction, it's the more relevant metric. I think the largest chunk of the volume difference is commercial-use. I don't have the numbers handy but the difference is huge.
bretpiatt 6y ago
> No factory is going to use credit card when buying $100,000 worth of parts from a supplier. I have a business who uses a credit card every month to buy more than $100,000 worth of materials from a supplier. On the consumption end the card programs are wonderful, great purchase protection negotiated, delay on actual payment for additional working capital, and rewards. We basically never have to use cash for employee travel expenses, all via points. There is no benefit for me paying my suppliers via ACH, wire, or check.

kyrra 6y ago

(Googler, opinions are my own) It really depends on the types of products and what the consumer experience is like. Google is an interesting beast in that we provide services across a wide variety of billing models. You have immediate product purchases, where knowing that the transactions is complete immediately can be important (ex: Play store games, or movies). Credit cards are great for that instant guarantee. For delayed billing or threshold billing (Ads), slower payment methods can work great (eg: ACH, wires, vouchers). Some of these also allow a standing instruction that a company that just keep paying money against to top-up their account (and Google will see it as a bank statement push payment). So yes, Credit Cards are a small volume of US payments, they enable specific products that don't work great with ACH or wires. If the US ever gets 100% ubiquitous instant bank push payments, maybe that'll change, but our banking system is too disjoint to move at any kind of speed to do this.

random3 6y ago
But there's Same Day ACH, right? Also the new RTP Network (https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/rtp https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/rtp) seems to get traction.
- kyrra 6y ago
  RTP is definitely a step in the right direction. It's coverage is s around 50%, which is good. I'm hoping FedNOW pushes is the rest of the way. The clearing house is also owned by many of the large banks in the US. While this seems nice, I'm sure there's some paranoia from non owners about joining a network owned by their competition. The UK went and interesting path of forcing all banks to implement faster payments, so it got wide coverage.