A recent Federal Reserve report that compared 2009 and 2011 debit card purchases found that consumers spent more than $1.7 trillion dollars in debit card transactions in 2011, an approximate 24% increase. But meanwhile, chargebacks and returns totaled 373 million transactions and $22 billion in sales.

Of total debit transactions, 11% were card-not-present (CNP) transactions, totaling $386 billion. Surprisingly, consumers were more likely to spend more via CNP transactions, according to the report: “The average value of card-not-present transactions ($75.81) was more than double that of card-present transactions ($34.52).” But CNP transactions were also more susceptible to fraud, accounting for 42 percent of overall fraudulent transactions.

In addition, the Durbin amendment has forced issuing banks with more than $10 billion in assets to practically halve their interchange fees: the average is now 24 cents per transaction, versus 50 cents per transaction before the Durbin amendment took effect.

With a growing number of debit transactions online and lower interchange fees, businesses with digital subscriptions are leaving money on the table if they’re not accepting debit cards. However, using debit cards can be tricky, especially if you’re conducting a trial requiring a credit card at sign-up ( a best practice since it makes trail-to-paying-subscriber conversion much easier). Some merchants have found that their payment processor will issue an “authorization” hold at the trial time, causing some customers to think they’ve been charged when they haven’t.

Fortunately, many of the major debit card issuers are penalizing this sort of “pre-auth” charge. But Subscription Site Insider found an even better way around it — create a paid trial. Even a a minimal $1.00 fee will make ease your payment processing and customer service concerns — and get you more qualified leads.