Texas consumers wrote fewer checks for purchases in 2009 compared with the previous year, reaching instead for their debit or credit cards, according to survey results released by Swacha, a not-for-profit regional payments association.
The Dallas-based organization in April surveyed 400 Texans online, and 62% of respondents said they wrote fewer checks monthly last year than they did in 2008. More than 90% of respondents said they had use a card to pay for a purchase of less than $500, the survey found.
Swacha is not providing a breakout of debit and credit card transaction trends, says Erin Jamison, a company spokesperson.
Despite the decline in check writing for purchases, Texas consumers still reach for their checkbooks to pay monthly expenses, including for their mortgage, water-bill and car payments. Forty-two percent of respondents used checks to pay their mortgage or rent; 41% did so to pay their water bill, and 29% paid their car payment by check. Mortgage companies and lenders that loan funds for automobile loans generally do not accept credit card payments. American Express Co., however, encouraged cardholders in New York to pay rent with AmEx cards so cardholders can accumulate points.
“Although the use of checks is declining, the paper check is still with us,” Dennis Simmons, Swacha president and CEO, said in a statement.
However, paying bills electronically is gaining momentum, he says. “Nearly half of all respondents indicated that paying telephone, cable and Internet bills via the biller’s Web site was their preferred method of payment,” the survey found.
Swacha’s members include 1,100 financial institutions, government agencies, businesses and professionals in Texas, New Mexico and Louisiana.
