This Financial Insights report summarizes the key findings of a major consumer survey conducted by Financial Insights from February 3 to February 5, 2006. A total of 1,004 U.S. adults aged 18 or older were asked about their usage of a variety of new and emerging payment methods. Similar surveys were conducted in 2003 and 2005, allowing for trend analysis. This year, the results contradicted several time-honored pieces of conventional wisdom, among them the idea that multimerchant gift cards have failed to take off and that online security programs such as Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode have stalled because of lack of merchant participation.

According to Aaron McPherson, research director for Payments at Financial Insights, "We were surprised to find that single-merchant gift cards showed a drop in the percentage of consumers using them, possibly indicating a shift to multimerchant cards. We will continue to update this survey annually to follow the long-term trends."