Jason Towner, a 32-year-old who works at a private equity firm, cut up his last credit card, from Capital One, in 2010. He did not have any unruly debts, but he had just watched his father and sister close the family furniture store after a bank cut off their credit line in the middle of the financial crisis.

“I was seeing what was happening around the world, and what was happening in my backyard, and I was thinking, ‘This is not a great idea,’” Mr. Towner said recently.

The resurgence of overall credit card use in the United States over the last year or two has been driven largely by subprime borrowers, according to the Federal Reserve, which has not looked at the recent growth in borrowing by age.

But it is clear to economists who study payment patterns that millennials are gravitating toward payment methods that skirt both cash and credit. Why carry cash when you can whip out a debit card for the smallest transaction — a sandwich or a bottle of soda — or use an app like Venmo or an online payment service like PayPal? All of those typically draw funds directly from a bank account.

Mr. Elliehausen of the Federal Reserve said he expected the aversion to debt among young Americans to continue, potentially with a downside. Credit cards are frequently necessary for the bigger purchases — like washing machines and computers — that can make households more efficient and help the economy grow. And credit cards are usually an essential part of the credit history that allows someone to borrow to buy a house.

Only 37 percent of American households headed by someone aged 35 and under held credit card debt in 2013, the most recent year for which data from the Survey of Consumer Finances is available, down by nearly a quarter from immediately before the financial crisis. That statistic may undercount young cardholders to some extent, as it excludes people under 35 who live with their parents.