Fed Economist Explains Surprising Results of Consumer Payment Study

So much for a cashless society! Consumers overwhelming have been picking paper over plastic (cards), according the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s 2009 Survey of Consumer Payment Choice. 

Part 1: Most popular and average number of payment forms used by consumers today

Part 2: Prepaid adoption and did online banking take a vacation last year?

Will consumers’ desire for dollar bills dampen innovation in payments? For insight into the report’s findings, Market Platform Dynamics CEO Karen Webster sat down with Scott Schuh, director of the Consumer Payments Research Center at Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. (Read report) Scott discusses how the survey was conducted and compares the results to those from the 2008 report. He also reveals the average number of payment instruments held by the U.S. consumer and how many of them he or she uses during the course of a typical month. Adoption rates for mobile and prepaid are examined, along with possible reasons behind the decline in payments from online banking accounts.

Related article: Choices at the Checkout- Credit Gets Canned

Bio: Scott Schuh is director of the Consumer Payments Research Center and a senior economist and policy advisor in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He joined the Bank in 1997 after serving as an economist for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System since 1991. Schuh also worked for President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers, the Congressional Budget Office, and the U.S. Census Bureau. He taught at Johns Hopkins University and Boston College. Schuh’s current research is on consumer payment choice and its relation to money and banking. Schuh earned a B.A. in economics and journalism from California State University, Sacramento in 1985, and a Ph.D. and M.A. in economics from Johns Hopkins University in 1992.