Americans prefer paying with EMV chip cards to swiping their cards or even paying with cash, according to a recent survey from financial technology solutions provider Fiserv.
According to the report, released last week, 36% of the people surveyed said they preferred EMV chip cards to other payment methods. The reason, according to the report, is that 32% perceive it to be more convenient, and 24% believe it to be faster.
Interestingly, last year, only 27% of people labeled EMV chips as the most convenient option. The survey, however, doesn’t compare payment with EMV chips to online payments.
EMV Chip, which stands for Europay, Mastercard, and Visa (its three original developers), was created to reduce fraud for cards used in physical stores by adding an extra layer of authentication through the chip. The phenomenon came to the U.S. a few years ago, after the technology was already well established in Europe and other parts of the world.
Since its advent in the U.S., EMV Chip has risen consistently in popularity. In fact, a report by ATM Marketplace shows that in 2017, the U.S. saw the largest year-over-year increase of EMV- enabled transactions to 31%, compared with 7% in the year before.
This recent Fiserv report shows that aside from becoming the preferred method of payment, EMV had significantly improved in other areas compared with last year. For instance, last year only 20% of those surveyed considered it a convenient option, while 15% considered it a faster payment method. This year’s numbers are almost twice as high.
It remains to be seen what impact mobile wallets will have on EMV chip payments. But that will only happen when mobile wallets gain a higher level of popularity among buyers in physical stores.
To read more about EMV statistics, along with stats on other payment topics, check out Fiserv’s full report here.
This survey was conducted by The Harris Poll between Aug. 22 and Sept. 7, 2017. The 3,081 respondents, ages 18 and older, hailed from across the U.S. and met certain criteria, including having used their checking account to pay bills within the month of the survey.







