All payments moving to electronic format - der!

The 2008 Study of Consumer Payment Preferences found that 63 percent of all consumer purchases are made using electronic payment methods. Electronic payments now account for the majority of payments across all three major payment venues-including bill payment. Internet payments have always been predominantly electronic, almost by default. For in-store payments, the balance between paper and electronic payments shifted in 2003, leaving bill payment as the last bastion of paper-based payments. This is no longer the case, however, as paper-based payments' share of bill payments shrank from 55 percent in 2005 to 38 percent in 2008.