Residents are paying differently than they did a few years ago. More bills are moving online, debit has gained share, and paper checks keep fading, while cash and other traditional methods remain in use. Most research tracking these trends is national and rarely speaks to local government. The 2026 Consumer Payment Behavior Roundup from Euna Solutions brings together findings from the Federal Reserve, Datos Insights, PYMNTS Intelligence, and BCG, among others, and translates them for public sector finance teams.
Download Your Report
"*" indicates required fields
This roundup draws on national research from the Federal Reserve’s Diary of Consumer Payment Choice and Payments Study, Datos Insights, PYMNTS Intelligence, and BCG. We read it with one audience in mind: the local government teams that collect, post, and reconcile public payments. A small Euna poll of public sector finance professionals adds a directional view from teams on the ground.
Download the 2026 Consumer Payment Behavior Roundup to explore:
Residents now pay local government online, in person, by mail, and through other channels. Behind those transactions, finance teams still have to post payments, match activity to the right accounts, reconcile across systems, and stay audit-ready.
That work continues as consumer behavior keeps changing. National research shows more bills moving online, debit gaining share, and checks declining, with different consumer groups approaching convenience differently.
The roundup ties each trend to what it means for collections and reconciliation and closes with five actions finance leaders can take now.
National research and our poll point to several trends in how residents pay:
Federal Reserve data shows that cash use has stabilized even as digital payments grow. For agencies, keeping non-digital options remains an important access consideration.
About 61% of bills are paid online, and 80% of those go through the biller’s own channel. That puts the agency payment portal at the center of collections.
Half of consumers not living paycheck to paycheck use autopay for most of their bills, compared with 26% of struggling paycheck-to-paycheck consumers. For agencies, convenience shouldn’t assume every resident wants to manage bills the same way.
Debit grew from 11% to 29% of bill payments between 2010 and 2026, and ACH leads among most generations. Accepting those payments is only part of the job, since they also need to post and reconcile cleanly.
Checks were 7% of bill payments in 2026, down from 37% in 2010. Separately, the federal government stopped issuing paper checks for most federal disbursements in September 2025.
The 2026 Consumer Payment Behavior Roundup is a research-based publication for finance directors, treasurers, comptrollers, revenue leaders, and other local government and public sector professionals who collect and reconcile payments. It takes national consumer payment research and translates it for their work.
The roundup closes with five actions leaders can take now. They cover consolidating payment channels, automating high-volume reconciliation, building organization-wide visibility, meeting residents where the data says they are, and aligning internal stakeholders. Each one ties back to a trend in the research.
Most consumer payment research is viewed through the lens of national behavior. This roundup brings together several leading sources and applies them to local government collections and reconciliation. A small Euna poll adds a directional view from the teams doing the work.
You don’t realize how important centralized reporting and reconciliation are until they are available to you. Euna Payments provides a Revenue Management tool that allows you to go in and see your transactions in real time.
Anisha Edwards
Customer Care Supervisor, Las Vegas Valley Water District
