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Though Acculynk Inc.'s Internet PIN-debit pilot is just a few weeks old, consumers are becoming comfortable with the technology at a rate exceeding the company's expectations. A survey Javelin Strategy & Research conducted reveals 80% of participants would use Acculynk's PaySecure Internet PIN-debit product if a trusted merchant presents it. Javelin surveyed 500 debit card users who made online purchases during the last year. Participants used PaySecure for a mock online purchase and then answered questions about their experience using the product. Atlanta-based Acculynk and the Pulse EFT network, which plans to pilot PaySecure, commissioned the study. Ashish Bahl, Acculynk CEO, says the company would view a 25% conversion rate of the total signature-debit volume of Internet transactions a success. "What this survey is basically saying is, in that group of folks targeted, that the conversion rate is closer to 80%," he tells ATM&Debit News, a CardLine sister publication. Sixty-five percent of participants said they would feel safer buying on the Internet using PaySecure, while 48% would buy more often on the Internet if they could pay using the product. "That 65% is a very strong number from our vantage point versus what a lot of people could have thought" in the aftermath of recent security breaches, Bahl says. The survey is the first of several research steps the company will conduct regarding the product, according to Danielle Dulcos, Acculynk director of marketing. "We're thinking of doing a larger survey of 1,000 consumers and spreading out the demographics," she says. Accel/Exchange and NYCE are two other EFT networks piloting PaySecure. A fourth network will be announced soon, Bahl says. Pulse is "looking forward to validating Javelin's findings in the pilot environment," says Judith McGuire, the Houston-based network's senior vice president of product management. "We believe Internet-based PIN debit has tremendous potential value for consumers, as well as for merchants and debit card issuers."
