Statistical Profile: Tender Types

 

Aggregate purchase volume

 

American Express, Discover, MC and Visa generated $3.069 trillion in purchase volume in 2008 (from consumer and commercial credit, debit and prepaid products).[1]

 

 

Debit & prepaid

 

Purchase volume:

$1.514 trillion in debit card transactions (2008)[2] [3]

Number of transactions:

32.19 billion transactions on debit cards (2008) [4]

 

Number of cards in circulation:

449 million debit cards in circulation (2008) [5]

 

 

Credit

 

Purchase volume:

$2.174 trillion in credit card transactions (2008) [6]

 

Number of transactions:

21.29 billion transactions on credit cards (2008) [7]

 

Number of cards in circulation:

676.1 million credit cards in circulation (2008) [8]

 

 

 

Check

 

Amount authorized:

$488.14 billion (2008) [9]

 

Number authorized:

7.2 billion authorized checks [10]

 

 

Cash

 

Purchase volume:

$1.3 trillion [11]

 

Number of cash transactions:

50 billion [12]

[1] The Nilson Report, Issue 924 (April 2009).

[2] The Nilson Report, Issue 924 (April 2009).

[3] ATM & Debit News (March 2008). http://pindebit.blogspot.com/2009/07/top-10-pin-debit-networks.html

[4] The Nilson Report, Issue 924 (April 2009).

[5] The Nilson Report, Issue 924 (April 2009).

[6] The Nilson Report, Issue 924 (April 2009).

[7] The Nilson Report, Issue 924 (April 2009).

[8] The Nilson Report, Issue 924 (April 2009).

[9] The Nilson Report, Issue 925 (May 2009).

[10] The Nilson Report, Issue 925 (May 2009).

[11] Digital Transactions, Volume 5, Issue 12 (December 2008).

[12] The Nilson Report, Federal Reserve, NACHA, ATM & Debit News. http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/eprg/presentations/2008/crowe04151708.pdf