BROOKFIELD, Wis.– The percentage of consumers using mobile bill pay rose significantly from late 2015 to late 2016, growing from 22% to 28%. Among mobile banking users, 41% used the service to pay bills in the past 30 days, according to the latest Expectations & Experiences consumer trends survey from Fiserv, Inc.
Faster payments continue to be important to consumers, with 76% saying that it is at least somewhat important that the payments they make are delivered in real time, the survey found.
Among the other findings in the Fiserv research:
- Bill payment was a notable factor in mobile banking use, with 53% of mobile banking users citing the ability to pay bills anywhere and anytime, 46% citing the ability to quickly pay bills at the last minute, and 31% citing the ability to receive mobile alerts when bills are due as reasons they use mobile banking.
- The share of consumers using person-to-person (P2P) payments via a financial organization in the past 30 days, a timeframe considered to designate “active” use, increased by more than one-third from 2015 to 2016, growing from 14% to 19%. Over the past year, sharing household expenses was the most common use of the service (9%), followed by repaying a loan or debt to a friend or family member (7%) and rent (6%), Fiserv said.
- Security concerns are a lower barrier to adoption than in the past, with the percentage of nonusers of P2P payments saying they have not tried the service due to concerns about security declining from 29% in 2015 to 21% in 2016.
- Digital wallet adoption is growing at a slow but steady rate, with 13% of consumers indicating they have used a digital wallet in the last 30 days, up from 11% in 2015 and 8% in 2014, according to a prior Fiserv survey. Fifteen percent of consumers said they had used a digital wallet in the past year. Among those interested in but not currently using digital wallets, features that mesh with peoples’ lifestyles have the most appeal, such as being able to turn off credit or debit cards in case of fraud (43%) or for any other reason (36%), withdrawing cash without a card (28%), and paying someone in real time (26%). Adding or promoting these capabilities could help drive further adoption.
- Millennials (ages 18-36) are more likely to have used a digital payment service in the past 30 days compared to their older peers (ages 37 or older). This includes:
- Online bill pay; 64% of millennials vs. 57% of older consumers
- Account-to-account transfers; 61% of millennials vs. 50% of older consumers
- Mobile bill pay; 54% of millennials vs. 18% of older consumers
- P2P payments via a financial organization; 37% of millennials vs. 13% of older consumers
- A digital wallet; 29% of millennials vs. 8% of older consumers
Fiserv said its survey found consumers are also more interested in faster payments, with 93% of millennials and 85% of Gen Xers (ages 37-51) saying that it is at least somewhat important that the payments they make are delivered in real-time, compared to 76% of the overall population.
“Consumers are living more digital lives, and that is being reflected in the way they pay,” said Mark Ernst, chief operating officer, Fiserv. “Bill payments and person-to-person payments from mobile devices are making their way toward the mainstream, while digital wallets are showing slow but steady growth reminiscent of the early days of online banking.”
A paper detailing the results and methodology of Expectations & Experiences: Consumer Payments is available at https://fisv.co/ee-payments2017.