January 28, 2001
MAITLAND, Fla. - One in every five ATM/debit card transactions is done on Saturday, according to statistics released by the Star Systems Inc. electronic payments network.
Star Systems processed nearly three billion transactions, either with ATM or debit cards, during the year 2000. That number represents a 17.4 percent increase from 1999. More than two-thirds of the transactions were point-of-sale (POS) transactions.
POS transactions continued to gain in popularity, climbing 33 percent from 1999 to 2000. ATM transactions, by contract, rose just four percent to 896 million transactions. The processing company predicts that its numbers will continue to show significant growth in 2001.
Not surprisingly, the Saturday before Christmas (Dec. 23) was the busiest day of the year for Star. It processed 10.8 million transactions that day.