Cards are preferred payment method in Europe

Cards are the preferred payment method in Europe, for both consumers and merchants. The use of cards has expanded over the past few years, with 87 percent of European consumers feeling comfortable paying by card.

The payments landscape of Europe keeps evolving and although new players have entered the market, cards still provide more added value than any other payment method. This is according to consumers and merchants, questioned by Payments Europe.

The result of the study [pdf] may not come as a total surprise, as this association is formed by card-based payment solution providers and wants to represent the card-based payments industry in Europe.

Benefits for consumers and merchants

Still, almost nine in ten consumers in Europe feel comfortable paying by card, while 90 percent of retailers say the benefits of card payments outweigh any associated costs. For consumers, benefits include convenience (49 percent), speed (35 percent), complementary insurance (36 percent), retailer acceptance (40 percent) and cash back on purchase (35 percent).

For merchants, the main benefits of card payments compared to other methods are guaranteed payment (53 percent), increased sales (44 percent) and access to a broader customer base (38 percent).

Use of payment methods online

One of the questions in the survey was “how would you divide the following methods you use to make payments online?”. Debit and/or prepaid cards were the most popular, with 33 percent, followed by fintech mobile/online applications (20 percent), credit card (19 percent) and banking mobile/online applications (16 percent).

‘Europe has competitive payments market’

“Consumers and retailers have access to a broad spectrum of payment methods, but cards – both physical and virtual – still rate as the highest among the different payment options”, says Hendrik Frank from Deutsche Kreditbank. “This demonstrates that Europe has a competitive payments market in which the card industry continues to deliver value to end-users.”