The CPS provides comprehensive data on how Australian consumers make their payments as well as qualitative information on payment preferences and attitudes. It is one of the main sources of information on the use of and attitudes towards different payment methods in Australia. A representative sample of just under 1, people participated in the CPS. The way in which Australians are making payments is changing.
New payment methods are emerging, often enabled by mobile technology, while transactional use of cash is declining. The survey is the first CPS to be conducted since the pandemic and so provides a valuable snapshot of its effect on consumers' payment patterns.
The CPS is a national cross-sectional survey that has been conducted every three years since 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 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.
