Decoupled debit cards among US cardholders rising - study

A report shows that in the US, cardholders have the tendency to get debit cards from an entity which is not the same with the one where they have their checking account. Nearly 36 percent of pollsters prefer getting a decoupled debit card.

A co-branded decoupled debit card displays the brands of the issuing financial institution and the co-brand merchant, apart from the logo of an important card network. Cardholders can also select private-label decoupled debit cards that operate over non-bank networks and are issued by merchants.

Due to the funding supplied by merchants, decoupled debit cardholders can benefit from rewards when they make purchases at the merchant’s stores. The study points out that despite the fact that decoupled debit cards do not necessarily imply rewards programs, the latter are the main reason for such a selection.

The scope of the rewards with co-brand cards is usually limited to purchases made at the co-brand merchant, unlike the case of non-co-brand reward cards.

The online survey was published by research and advisory firm Aite in January 2008.