Cash or Card: Consumer Perceptions of Payment Modes - Scholarly ...

token is used, perceptions and behaviours that differ to those that occur when a debit card is
used. The findings show that there is indeed different responses to the tokens used a
difference that the participants link to the physical nature of both.
One difference recognised and examined by researchers such as Soman (2001) is the quality
of our mental accounting. Soman (2001) suggests that cash use assists in the remembering of
how much money being spent whereas use of card does not. So the physicality of payment
mode influences the price-benefit analysis and tallying of mental accounts. This study found
that people felt their ability to tally expenditures were better with cash than a debit card. The
common view is that one can see the actual value being transferred from hand to hand using
cash whereas debit card obscures this awareness of transfer.
Research Question Two: Does the payment mode used affect the volume, value, of
brands/products purchased in a single transaction? If so, how?
To address this question a field based data collection mode was adopted. Two hundred and
forty participated in this field study and were randomly assigned to a specific payment mode
- cash, debit card and control (participants asked to use their normal payment mode).
Participants were asked to provide a supermarket docket for their weekly household shop for
the week specified. The findings show that:
138
� The volume and the value of purchase in a single transaction increase when a debit
card is used to enable payment. The amount spent on indulgence food product
purchased in a single transaction did not vary across payment modes. This finding
contradicts the findings of the Thomas et al.. (2011) study where the researchers
found that that debit and credit card users spend more on unhealthy and impulsive
product than cash users. One possible explanation could be smaller sample size that
could have restricted statistical significance.
� Though, debit card use increases spending per transaction, that more items are
purchased is not evident.
� The amount spent by debit card users on ‘meal’ making items is significantly higher
than the cash users, though debit card users also spent more on non-alcoholic
beverages the results is not statistically significant.