WESTBURY, N.Y.—(BUSINESS WIRE, January 10, 2007)—According to research by Auriemma Consulting Group (ACG), 50 percent of consumers say that inputting their debit card PIN at the point of sale constitutes a more secure transaction than one in which they sign a receipt.

Although it is still the most common form of debit card purchase authorization, respondents found signature approvals to be neither particularly secure (rating them just 4.98 on a scale from 1 to 10), nor a favorable method of approving debit card purchases (5.81 on the same scale). This finding was originally published in the September 2006 issue of Cardbeat^(r), a syndicated market research report published by ACG.

"While debit's market share continues to grow overall, PIN-authorized debit transactions are growing at a faster rate than signature-authorized debit transactions," says Megan Bramlette, Cardbeat's managing editor. "PIN-authorized debit transactions have nearly doubled in market share over the past half-decade."

Twenty percent of respondents say they have a debit card rewards program, up 40 percent from 12 percent of respondents who had debit rewards in the May 2006 survey. However, nearly one-third of respondents who think that PIN-approved debit transactions are more or equally secure as signature-approved ones said that increased security is more valuable than earning rewards. "This is especially notable considering that the survey specified that PIN-approved debit card purchases are generally not eligible to receive rewards but signature-approved transactions are," Bramlette says. "Only 15 percent of these respondents thought that receiving rewards is more valuable than the increased security of PIN-authorized debit transactions."

Additionally, just over half of the 15 percent of respondents who rated signature more secure than PIN said security outweighs rewards.

The information in this release was originally published in the September 2006 issue of Cardbeat^(r) as part of a larger study on debit card purchase authorization. The analysis included in this report came as result of a survey of 339 debit card using consumers.

Cardbeat is a syndicated market research study from Auriemma Consulting Group that provides insight into how consumer perceptions impact credit card acquisition and usage. ACG is a management consulting firm in the payments and lending industry.