As I write this, I am drinking my morning cup of joe. For me, that means half caf/half decaf, then cut in half with microwaved nonfat milk. (Slurp.)

Day in, day out, I want it just that way. No sugar for me. Nonfat milk, not 2 percent. Black only when I open the door to an empty fridge.

Odds are, you're like me when it comes to coffee and payments. Your habits—and mine—are sticky. We've found something that works for us and—day in, day out—we take our coffees and choose to pay the same way. These are our preferences.

What happens when we change our minds about what we prefer? Shaun O'Brien at the San Francisco Fed has been looking into the relationship between our stated preferences for making in-person purchases and the payment instruments we use in the moment.

In an economic model that incorporates consumer demographics, household income, transaction characteristics, and the payee, Shaun finds that, over time, a change in stated preference eventually results in an increased probability of using a newly preferred payment instrument.

Note that word eventually.

For example, say I stated a preference for cash in 2016 and then switched to a stated overall preference for debit card in 2017. It might not be until 2018 that you would start to see a small change in my mix of payments, with relatively less use of cash and more of debit. Like a coffee habit, my preferred payments habit is slow to change. (Keep in mind that, as I have blogged previously, preference is one of a number of factors that are important, including, for example, what a payee is willing to accept.)

Whatever your morning beverage, I hope you'll join Shaun, the Atlanta Fed's Oz Shy, and me for the next Talk About Payments webinar, October 10, 2019.

We'll look at current data from the Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment Choice and new research—including Shaun's findings reported above—to investigate the 5 Ws and also the How of cash:

  • WHAT is happening with cash?
  • WHO uses cash?
  • WHERE do consumers use cash?
  • WHEN do consumers use cash?
  • WHAT might cause cash users to switch to another payment method?
  • HOW do consumers get cash?

This webinar is open to the public but you must register in advance to participate. (Registration is free.) You can register online. Once registered, you will receive a confirmation email with login and call-in information.

Date: Thursday, October 10, 2019
Time: 1–2 p.m. (ET)
Register now!

Photo of Claire Greene By Claire Greene, a payments risk expert in the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Atlanta Fed