Visa is the top payment brand online, but Bill Me Later users spend more

Online shoppers pay most often with Visa, but those who pay with deferred payment option Bill Me Later or American Express cards are more likely to be big spenders, according to recent survey data from JupiterResearch.

54% of consumers surveyed in July said they owned a Visa credit card and 38% called it their preferred way to pay online. Comparable ownership/preference figures for other credit cards were: MasterCard 41%/24%, Discover 18%/9% and American Express 16%/9%.

51% said they owned a debit card and 30% called it their preferred way to pay online. PayPal ownership was 33%, with 23% saying it’s their preferred payment method.

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While only 4% said they had signed up for Bill Me Later, 4% also called it their preferred way to pay. “With a preference rate virtually equal to its ownership rate, Bill Me Later customers demonstrate an active interest in using the service where possible,” says the report, “Payment Preferences Online”, by analyst Edward Kountz.

The report also notes that 18% of online shoppers who use Bill Me Later have spent $750 or more online in the past three months, and 16% of those who pay with American Express. That compares with 11% for those who use Visa, 13% for MasterCard and Discover, 10% for debit cards and 11% for PayPal

Other findings in the report include:

• American Express and MasterCard cardholders tend to skew slightly older and more male than users of other products and tend to have incomes of $75,000 or more per year. Visa users tend to be slightly younger and to have lower incomes.
• Bill Me Later and debit card users skew slightly female.
• PayPal users are concentrated in the 25 to 44 age range.
• Google Checkout, the payment option introduced in June 2006, has only 2% penetration, with just 1% calling it their preferred way to pay online. Google Checkout skews towards those 18 to 34 years old, and its users tend to have incomes of $60,000 with a “particularly positive skew” toward those with incomes of $100,000 or more, the report says.

Ipsos Insight conducted the survey, interviewing 3,600 consumers, of whom 2,410 had made an online purchase in the previous three months.