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MAITLAND, Fla.-- Consumers' growing eagerness to use online POS to make real-time debit purchases was confirmed by a recent Star Systems Inc. survey of consumer attitudes. The survey of 8,486 cardholders in 21 states shows that, in the 30 days prior to the survey, ATM/debit cardholders used their cards an average of 16.8 times, or about four times a week. Eighty-five percent of ATM/debit cardholders surveyed said they used their card at least once during the previous 30 days and a nearly identical number (84 percent) used the card for a POS transaction during that time. POS transactions accounted for nearly half of monthly usage as cardholders reported an average of 7.9 POS transactions in the previous 30 days, or about two such transactions every week. The telephone survey, conducted for STAR by the Applied Management & Planning Group and completed in December 1999, also suggested that the popularity of POS transactions is likely to grow in the years ahead. Nearly four of 10 (38 percent) cardholders not currently making POS transactions said they "definitely" or "probably" would use their ATM/debit card to make POS transactions in the future, and another 20 percent said they "might" use the card for that purpose. Consumers indicated a strong preference for cards that rely on PINs to authorize a transaction. This preference was largely due to the belief that a PIN offers better protection against fraud than a signature-based authorization. Half of those polled (50 percent) preferred PIN-based transactions, while 31 percent prefer signature-based transactions. Fifty percent of those who prefer the PIN-based transaction cited fraud protection as their major reason. Asked about other electronic services they'd like to try, a significant number of consumers indicated they would be more likely to use a personal computer for home banking services if the services were authorized by a PIN. More than two-thirds (68 percent) of those polled said a PIN code for home banking was "very important" and another 15 percent called it "fairly" or "somewhat" important. Speaking on the first anniversary of the March 1, 1999 merger of the Honor and Star networks, Star Systems President and CEO Ron Congemi said STAR is moving rapidly on new services, including secure Internet ATM/debit card payments and check conversion programs that will provide the advantages of POS payment for consumers who use paper checks or other forms of payments. In conjunction with its anniversary, STAR said it is planning a series of white papers, including an examination of privacy issues for release later this month. Spurred by the merger with Honor, Star said it processed a record 2.3 billion transactions in 1999, led by consumers' increasing usage of POS debit. POS transactions handled by Star climbed to nearly 1 billion, an increase of 32 percent. ATM transactions rose 3.3 percent to 757 million.