Mobile banking is changing how we pay
19 July 2018
More people than ever are using their mobile phones to shop, yet ING research shows that when it comes to paying, they aren’t quite ready to give up on banks yet. Despite having more providers to choose from, 58% of Europeans prefer to use their own bank for their money services.
One in five Europeans has used another provider to transfer money (to pay for goods or services) in the past 12 months. When it comes to other financial services the majority stick to their own bank. Only 15% have used another provider’s app to make a peer-to-peer payment (for example to split a bill with friends), and even fewer (9%) have gone elsewhere for a loan.
Those that do look beyond traditional banks are most likely to be in Turkey, Germany or Poland.
The ING International Survey of mobile money trends in Europe, the US and Australia questioned around 15,000 people in 15 countries. It found that smartphones are changing the way people shop, with roughly two out of three people buying items online at least monthly or even weekly. In the UK and US, 16% of people make online purchases even more frequently than once a week.
Tech giants not so big in payments
When it comes to paying for these purchases, 42% use their bank cards; 32% use payments service PayPal, 11% use a local payments app and another 11% pay on delivery (using either cards or cash). While the big tech companies like Apple, Google and Amazon all offer their own payment services, each of these accounts for only one percent of transactions in Europe and not much more in the US.
Facebook is the least popular choice, with 52% of Europeans saying they would ‘never’ use it to pay for goods or services. At the time of the survey (in March/April 20108) Facebook was being criticised for leaking personal data to third parties.
Traditional shoppers
At the other end of the scale, four percent of Europeans never shop online. More than half of these say they prefer to actually see what they’re buying rather than rely on a digital image; others like the social side of shopping. Security fears and waiting for deliveries, or not having a reliable delivery service, are other reasons for not shopping online.
Those who visit physical stores tend to pay with cash (32%), credit card (31%) or debit card (29%).
Convenience and availability, as well as the absence of fees, comfort with security and device compatibility are all contributing to the increasing popularity of online banking. Another contributor is the rise of automated payments that require no action from the consumer, for instance direct debits to settle monthly bills.
Read the full ING International Survey Mobile Banking
