RDP 2023-08: The Evolution of Consumer Payments in Australia: Results from the 2022 Consumer Payments Survey 2. Survey Overview

Tanya Livermore, Jack Mulqueeney, Thuong Nguyen and Benjamin Watson

November 2023

The CPS is a national cross-sectional survey that has been conducted every three years since 2007.[1] The 2022 CPS comprised three sections: a pre-diary questionnaire about the demographic characteristics of respondents; a payments diary; and a post-survey questionnaire focusing on respondents' payment preferences and attitudes. Participants recorded every transaction they made for seven days in the payments diary. The CPS provides unique insights into Australian consumers' payments behaviour and their changing preferences via both qualitative questions and quantitative analysis of the payments diaries.

The seven-day payments diary captured detailed information on every transaction that a consumer made in a week. The information included:

  • the payment method – for example, debit card, credit card, cash or bank transfer
  • the payment location – whether in-person or online
  • the execution of the payment method – for example, by inserting a card into the terminal, or tapping a physical card or mobile device
  • the payment purpose – for example, supermarket, household bills, leisure or transport.

The survey was delivered online for most respondents, except for participants without internet access who were recruited by telephone to complete a paper-based survey. Participants were recruited to the survey to ensure that the sample was consistent with population benchmarks for age, sex, household income, state of residence, credit card ownership and internet access (where necessary, the Reserve Bank weighted responses to align the sample with these benchmarks; see Appendix A.2 for more information).

A total of 999 people participated in the 2022 CPS, recording around 11,000 payments, 400 cash withdrawals and 1,900 automatic payments in their seven-day diary periods. For further details on the survey, see Appendix A.

Footnote

For a discussion of the 2017 and 2019 CPS results, see Doyle et al (2017) and Caddy, Delaney and Fisher (2020). This discussion paper builds on material released in the June 2023 Bulletin, see Mulqueeney and Livermore (2023) and Nguyen and Watson (2023). [1]