Time to fix problems created by fraud is a bigger worry than financial losses

Heading into the busiest shopping season of the year, a large majority of consumers are concerned enough about fraudulent use of their credit cards and debit cards that they want to take a more proactive role in their own security. A survey conducted in the US, Canada and the UK by FICO, a leading predictive analytics and decision management software company, shows that fraud is top-of-mind for consumers in the wake of high-profile data breaches.

Respondents’ primary concern about payment fraud wasn’t financial loss, it was the time required to fix the problems created by fraud. This was the top concern for 68 percent of respondents in the US, 60 percent in Canada and 51 percent in the UK.

In the survey, 70 percent of respondents in the US said they were concerned about fraudulent use of their payment cards. In Canada, 75 percent of respondents were concerned about fraud and in the UK, 66 percent of those polled expressed concern about fraud.

Survey respondents said they were interested in tools they could use to dynamically manage their own payment security. In all three countries, more than 50 percent of consumers said they wanted to use a mobile app to control the types of transactions for which their cards could be used (e.g., in-store, online, mail order), and the maximum dollar amount for allowable transactions.

“The steady drumbeat of news about massive security breakdowns has eroded public confidence in institutional data security,” said Anant Nambiar, FICO’s general manager for fraud and protection, who presented on consumer fraud controls today at FICO World 2014, with FICO Consumer Product Manager Colin McKee. “Consumers around the world clearly have an appetite for stronger payment card security, and they are eager to work with their card issuers to protect themselves.”

American Consumers More Interested in Real-Time Alerts

US consumers were more interested in real-time notifications than consumers in the other two countries. Among US respondents, 63 percent said they would use a service that sends email or text messages when suspicious activity is observed on their payment cards. In Canada, 51 percent of respondents said they would use such a service, while 46 percent of respondents in the UK were interested in that type of service.

The online survey was conducted by FICO in Canada, the UK and the US during October 2014, with 1265 consumers participating.