DENVER, Colo. — Charging debit card holders more to use personal identification numbers than signatures to validate their debit transactions does not appear to significantly impact card holder behavior, a recent survey found.

Since debit transactions which are validated with a signature bring in more interchange than those validated with a PIN, both bank and credit union debit issuers have set additional fees on PIN validated transactions to try to steer cardholders to choosing signatures over PINs. But a recent study from card processor First Data Corp. found that only 5% of cardholders surveyed reported choosing to use their signatures to validate debit transactions in order to avoid a PIN fee.

The study found that the same percentage of consumers chose to use signatures to avoid PIN fees as chose to use PINs out of "habit." The biggest reasons that PIN users indicated they chose to punch numbers into a machine at the counter rather than sign were the belief that PINs provide greater security (44%), were easier or simpler to use (28%) and were faster or quicker to use (25%).