BROOKFIELD, Wis.—Seniors are making good—and perhaps unexpected—use of online banking options, according to a new study.
Fiserv’s Expectations & Experiences: Consumer Payments report, the company’s quarterly consumer trends survey conducted by Harris Poll among more than 3,000 banking consumers in the U.S., reveals that grandma isn’t just standing in line at the branch. Seventy-two percent of U.S. banking consumers age 70 and older say they use online banking. Seniors who've used online banking in the past month use the service with similar frequency to most other age demographics, logging in 7.3 times per month compared to a mean of 8.1 logins per month, the report stated.
"Just like other generations, seniors want to be able to quickly and easily access their money, pay their bills and get on with their lives," said Steve Shaw, vice president of strategic marketing, digital banking, Fiserv. "Understanding how and when seniors leverage digital banking—and their high levels of satisfaction with it—can help financial institutions effectively engage with this important consumer segment."
Less Likely To Trust Passwords
Interestingly, seniors who say they use online banking are also significantly more likely than banking consumers in general to report using online banking to pay bills within the past month. Seventy-four percent of seniors who use online banking said they paid bills online in the past 30 days, the study shows.
Perhaps most surprisingly, the study found seniors are the most satisfied with online banking—69% rate it nine out of 10 or higher, while only 49% of all U.S. banking consumers rate their institution's online banking this highly.
“For a little more evidence that seniors aren't quite as old school as people think, their views on authentication methods might be surprising. It turns out seniors trust retina scans (42%) as much as anyone, but they are far less likely to trust passwords as authentication methods—25% of seniors say they would feel secure with passwords to confirm their identity when using a mobile app, compared to 41% of consumers overall,” Fiserv explained.
As for in-person transactions, seniors do still visit the branch. According to Fiserv’s next survey in this series, Expectations & Experiences: Channels & New Entrants, seniors do visit the branch–2.6 times per month, but not nearly as frequently as consumers between the ages of 25 and 35, who make 4.6 branch visits a month.