Focus Group Findings on Prepaid Debit Cards
This fact sheet focuses on the lessons learned from consumers who purchase and use prepaid debit cards.
More infoSurvey Respondents
Our survey population is predominantly female and foreign-born and identifies as Hispanic/Latino. Between survey phases, there was a 28 percent attrition rate. Those who dropped out of the survey between phases were disproportionately male, residents of control neighborhoods (those not targeted in the initial phase of the Bank on LA program), earners of slightly higher incomes than the general survey population, voters in the United States and English-speakers. In Phase II, overall household incomes declined, with 78 percent of respondents reporting household incomes below $25,000, up from the 71 percent who reported such income levels in Phase I. Additionally, the percentage of female respondents increased slightly, as did the percentage of foreign-born respondents. The mean age of respondents increased significantly, up eight years between Phase I and Phase II.
This population is the working poor with the vast majority of household income coming from employment. The form of income was very similar in both survey phases, with the majority of respondents in both phases being paid by check. Monthly expenditures rose slightly between phases, up $19 for banked respondents in Phase II and $44 for unbanked respondents in Phase II. For information on survey methodology, see the Appendix.
