US consumers, businesses and governments made 236.6 billion core noncash payments in 2024, according to initial results from the Federal Reserve’s 2025 payments study. The total was 31.9 billion higher than in 2021, with cards accounting for most of the increase.
The findings provide a broad benchmark for payment providers because they separate transaction count from transaction value. Cards represented 79% of noncash payments by number in 2024, but only 8% by value. Automated clearing house transfers moved 74% of total noncash value.
The Federal Reserve said the 2025 study collected calendar-year 2024 data from voluntary surveys of depository institutions, card networks and other major payment processors. Its initial release covers general-purpose and private-label cards, ACH transfers, checks and ATM cash withdrawals. It excludes wire transfers, which are used mainly for large financial transactions.
Card payments drive record absolute increase
The number of noncash payments rose by the largest absolute amount recorded for a three-year period since the study began estimating US volumes in 2000. Even so, the annual growth rate was 4.9% from 2021 to 2024, slightly below the rates in the preceding two three-year periods.
Card payments increased their share of transaction count to 79%, from 77% in 2021 and 71% in 2015. Debit remained the largest card category, reaching 120.6 billion payments in 2024 and representing 64% of card transactions. However, debit’s annual growth slowed to 4.1%, the lowest rate for any measured three-year period since 2000.
Credit cards grew faster by number. Payments reached 67.1 billion in 2024, up 16.2 billion from 2021. The Fed said this was the first measured three-year period in which credit card payments grew more than debit card payments. General-purpose cards supplied most of that growth, while private-label credit card payments declined to 2.9 billion from a 2018 peak of 3.7 billion.
For issuers, networks and processors, the figures show that debit still supplies scale, while incremental card volume shifted toward general-purpose credit during the study period. The data do not explain the causes of that change, and the initial release does not break out fraud, interchange, authorization performance or merchant-sector trends.
ACH dominates payment value
Total noncash payment value rose to $140.01 trillion in 2024, an increase of $10.37 trillion from 2021. That equated to 2.6% annual growth, compared with 10.4% from 2018 to 2021.
ACH accounted for $104.06 trillion, raising its share of noncash value to 74% from 72% three years earlier. ACH debit transfers grew faster than ACH credits by both number and value, but ACH credits still represented 65% of ACH payment value. Their average value reached $3,881 in 2024, compared with $2,195 in 2000.
The split illustrates why transaction-count leadership does not imply value leadership. Card infrastructure handled the overwhelming majority of payment events, while ACH carried most of the dollars within the methods measured. Payment companies comparing rails therefore need to distinguish frequency, ticket size and use case rather than treating aggregate share as a single market measure.
Checks and ATM withdrawals continue to fall
Check payments declined to 9.2 billion by number and $24.45 trillion by value in 2024. They represented 4% of noncash payments by number and 17% by value, down from 59% and 67%, respectively, in 2000. At the same time, the average check value increased to $2,653 from $945, indicating that the shrinking base remained weighted toward larger payments.
ATM cash withdrawals also fell, reaching 3.4 billion in 2024 compared with 5.2 billion in 2015. Average withdrawal value moved in the opposite direction, increasing to $210 from $134 over the same period.
Payments Dive independently highlighted the slower growth in debit usage and the acceleration in credit card transactions. The Federal Reserve described the July publication as an initial release and said it will provide additional detail as analysis is completed. That qualification matters: the top-line results establish the direction and scale of payment use, but they do not yet provide all of the operational detail needed to attribute changes to consumer behavior, pricing, fraud controls or specific payment products.