Credit Card eZine - News and Articles about Credit Cards

Credit cards still remain most popular form of online payment

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Although losing their share to debit cards, credit cards will continue to be the most popular form of payment online for at least the next 5 years. Alternative payment methods, debit cards, and prepaid gift cards are all picking up in share. According to industry predictions, and surveys, alternative payment modes are expected to double in volume in the next 5 years. With growth in electronic retail, and a slower growth rate in overall retail sales, it is expected for the share of e-commerce to grow.

The market share of debit cards is estimated to be around 28%, which is pretty much the same as what it was last year, although it had increased to 29% this year. Interestingly a lot of young consumers indulge in online payments, because they grew up with computers. However, they rely more on the debit cards because of the speed with which the transactions are done, unlike credit cards, where you pay with your card, get a monthly report, and then pay your bills, and along with the interest. There are a lot of online purchase alternatives that consumers use these days. Newer and popular options include Google Checkout, PayPal, Amazon etc. The lower cost automated networks are getting a lot of traffic in recent times. The online numbers for retail cards is likely to increase from 14.2 billion dollars to 20.3 billion dollars. The market share though could slip from 6% to 5% in the next 5 years.