Online Credit Card Use Not So Trusted Among American Consumers

During the holiday shopping season, one of the most convenient ways to shop for American consumers was to go online and order their purchases through an online merchant. However, according to a new survey from Rasmussen Reports, American consumers are still too worried about identity theft to move all of their shopping online.

Rasmussen Reports recently ran a national telephone survey among American consumers aimed at finding out how comfortable American consumers are with making online purchases. According to the results of the report, of those surveyed, 49% felt somewhat comfortable with using their credit cards for making online purchases, a drop by 11 percentage points from the figures taken last year. Almost as many respondents, specifically 47%, said they were uncomfortable with making online purchases with their credit cards.

Consumers who were comfortable with making online purchases with their credit cards were 24% of the respondents.

Usually, respondents who used the Internet daily or almost daily were more comfortable with online credit card spending. However, there were still a few respondents who spend time online for several times a week who said they were wary with making purchases online with their credit cards.

Regarding prevalence of information theft, 12% of the respondents said they have experienced online theft of their credit card information; 80%, on the other hand, reported not having that problem. Figures remained the same as they were from the study conducted one year ago.

Unchanged as well is the percentage of American consumers who were a bit concerned regarding identity theft, 84%. This figure includes 46% of consumers who reported high concern over identity theft.

In terms of identity theft, 16% of respondents said they have been victims of it and 78% said they have not experienced it.

Among those surveyed, consumers belonging to the younger generation and those with higher income levels were more comfortable with making online credit card purchases compared to those belonging to the older generation who have lower income levels.

For online shopping, 49% reported this year that they did part of their holiday shopping online. However, only 2% reported doing all of their shopping online.

Of those surveyed, 51% reported paying off their credit cards fully every month, avoiding incurring interest fees. However, those who said they carried balances on their cards sometimes number almost as much at 45% and 83% of those surveyed also admitted that people are tempted to spend on items that they cannot afford because they carry credit cards.