2025 Debit Payment Trends

Debit cards continue to be among consumers’ top payment methods of choice for in-store and online transactions. Consumers increasingly prefer to use digital debit payments for bill payments, everyday purchases, and paying friends and family. Most shoppers use debit cards to fund mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Google Wallet, PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App. While most financial institutions enable customers to add debit cards to digital wallets, many issuers prioritize digital issuance capability to ensure immediate card credential access, usage, and continued top-of-wallet status. 

U.S. real-time payment adoption and transaction volume are also growing steadily. More financial institutions and service providers are connecting to the Federal Reserve’s FedNow and The Clearing House’s RTP networks. As FedNow and RTP launch additional features and more participants can send and receive instant payments, new, innovative real-time payment use cases are realized. 

With the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau anticipated to finalize its rulemaking for Dodd-Frank Act Section 1033, giving consumers the right to access and share their financial data, open banking and pay-by-bank are stimulating significant interest in the United States. Open banking could be a game changer for account-to-account payments, especially with real-time payments. 

In 2025, debit payments will center on strengthening digital capabilities, implementing real-time payment use cases, and expanding pay-by-bank adoption. The following three trends stand out as critical issues for the coming year. 

Debit cards will remain the steadfast choice in a dynamic market. Consumers prefer debit cards, especially for digital payments in mobile wallets, rather than cash. Support for digital debit payments is necessary, and rewards help sweeten the deal for loyal debit card users. 

Real-time payments will expand their influence in actualizing everyday transactions with ease. As FedNow and RTP adoption expands, more instant payment use cases are being launched. Consumers and businesses highly value and expect real-time payment services that improve how they transact and move money. 

Open banking will ignite a pay-by-bank and A2A transformation. Open banking technology and pay-by-bank are revolutionizing the A2A payments experience. Eliminating manual processes, pay-by-bank provides a seamless, secure, and potentially lower-cost payment option for consumers and merchants.