In the 12 months to February this year, Australians racked up some 109 million debit card transactions per month, compared to the 117 million credit card transactions per month over the same period.
The results represent a three-fold increase in usage since February 2009, while credit card usage has only increased by an estimated 10 per cent.
The skyrocketing usage of debit cards has been driven by the 18-34 age cohort, which posted a four fold increase in usage.
Despite there being more credit cards (10.2 million) than debit cards (7.4 million) on issue, the average monthly usage per debit card of 14.6 in February 2013 has already overtaken the average frequency of using credit cards (11.4 times, February 2013).