2024 North American PaymentsInsights: U.S.: Exhibit
- Date:December 11, 2024
- Author(s):
- Ben Danner
- Research Topic(s):
- North American PaymentsInsights
- PAID CONTENT
Overview
The economic environment of 2024 was particularly challenging. Consumers grappled with inflationary pressures and high interest rates among an economically uncertain market with a rising cost-of-living. Overall, we observed a marked shift towards credit products as consumers required them for their overall payment needs.
This year we saw several trends among younger generations. Following what we observed last year, Gen Z reported an increased usage of general-purpose credit cards outpacing debit cards for the second year in a row. Products like private label credit and debit cards tended to be most popular with Millennials reflecting the diversity of card ownership among this generation. Both Gen Z and Millennials lead in adoption of digital wallets and app-based purchases as well as Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) and post-pay installment plans.
Older generations remained consistent with trends observed in last year’s survey. We observed a strong preference and usage for credit and debit cards as well as paper checks, while still shying away from digital wallets and app-based payment methods. Newer forms of payment such as BNPL continue to be dominated by younger generations, while cryptocurrency is seeing strong usage among Gen X outpacing Gen Z. When it comes to the latest technology such as Pay-By-Bank, older generations expressed the most disinterest demonstrating their willingness to stay with what they are comfortable using for payments.
Highlights of the exhibit report include:
- Personal Banking Experience
- Payment Methods & Usage
- Credit
- P2P Payments
- Mobile/Security
- Real-Time Payments
- Pay-by-Bank
Book a Meeting with the Author
Related content
A Generational Look at Card Network Usage
In this Primary Data Snapshot by Javelin Strategy & Research, a dive into year-over-year usage of the four major U.S. credit card networks shows that generationally targeted approa...
The Bots are Coming: Generational Aspects to AI Adoption
This Primary Data Snapshot—a Javelin Strategy & Research report focusing on consumer payment usage and behavior—shows how consumers, particularly younger ones, are leveraging the p...
2025 North American PaymentInsights: U.S.: Financial Services and Emerging Technologies Exhibit
This report is based on Javelin Strategy’s North American PaymentsInsights series’ annual survey. A web-based survey was fielded between July 14 – 26, 2025, using a US online consu...
Make informed decisions in a digital financial world