National Poll finds Financial Crimes A Worry for Many Americans
This entry was posted on 10/24/2007 9:54 AM and is filed under Deposits,Statements,Technology.
WASHINGTON, October
24, 2007
/PRNewswire/ — The popular image of a lottery or sweepstakes winner receiving
a giant paper check is out-of-date, according to a new national poll sponsored
by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Three to one, Americans say
if they hit the jackpot, they'd take the money by direct deposit, reflecting
the country's growing familiarity with the safety and convenience of electronic
banking. Yet when it comes to their everyday payments, many Americans do
not take the same precautions with their money, according to the poll. Direct
deposit eliminates check fraud and helps protect people against other financial
crimes, but more than one in four Americans — including 12 million Social
Security and other federal beneficiaries — still get their salary or other
regular payments by paper check.
Treasury data show that nine
out of 10 problems with Social Security payments are with paper checks, not
direct deposit, so check recipients are significantly more likely to face
unexpected delays in obtaining their money. Treasury encourages senior
citizens, people with disabilities and others receiving federal benefits to
safeguard their money by signing up for direct deposit for free by calling
(800) 333-1795.
Worries about financial
crimes are widespread, according to the poll, with nearly half the respondents
— 45 percent — saying they or someone they knew had been a victim of identity
theft. That compares to 40 percent in a similar poll a year ago.
Yet most respondents said
signing up for direct deposit is an effective way to safeguard their finances.
Two-thirds of the survey respondents (63 percent) said getting a paper check in
the mail was risky in terms of loss or theft, compared with just one-fifth who
said the same of direct deposit (19 percent). Respondents were also four times
more likely to cite direct deposit as the best safeguard against identity theft
than paper checks (72 percent vs. 17 percent).
In addition, the vast
majority of people who already use direct deposit said they have had a positive
experience (96 percent). Most direct deposit users said that if forced to
switch to paper checks, they would be concerned about financial crime and other
problems, including identity theft (83 percent), loss or theft of their check
(75 percent) or delays in receiving their payments (67 percent).
So why don't more people use
direct deposit? Surprisingly, the lack of a bank account isn't the issue —
nine out of 10 respondents in the latest poll said they have a checking or
savings account. Many people say it simply isn't available to them. Forty
percent of check recipients in the poll said their employers don't offer direct
deposit — yet half of that group said they would choose it if they had the
option.
Results are from a
nationally representative telephone survey of 1,406 adults, ages 18 and over,
conducted September 12 - September
17, 2007, by KRC
Research. The margin of error for the overall study is +/- 2.6 percent at the
95 percent confidence level.
Source: U.S. Department of the
Treasury
