Consumers Embracing Online/Mobile Payments as Security Concerns Remain
Financial institutions can meet consumers where they are with intelligent payments experiences.
Fiserv revealed as consumers embrace online and mobile bill payment and fiscal tracking there are opportunities for financial institutions to improve the experience by increasing customer knowledge of services and security.
The Brookfield, Wis.-based financial technology provider revealed insights from Expectations & Experiences: Consumer Payments, its latest consumer survey from Fiserv, that show most consumers (59%) paid bills online in the past 30 days. Yet, convenience rather than comfort with the technology may drive the steady use with nearly half who are involved in managing bills expressing concerns about security.
At the same time, interest in new features and functionality is growing, but nearly half of consumers are confused by the different financial products and services available today.
“Consumers are continually raising the bar for what they need and expect when it comes to moving and managing their money, and these results reinforce that payments are more than a transaction and central to the brand experience,” Devin McGranahan, senior group president, Fiserv said. “Even as consumer preferences evolve and new innovations gain traction, consistency and execution remain the hallmarks of billing and payments strategy. Billers and financial institutions can meet their customers where they are with intelligent payments experiences that drive relationships and satisfaction.”
About half of consumers (53%) agreed they like to staying connected to the internet always, yet an equal number (53%) say they strongly distrust internet security or privacy. Generally, concern over security is a commonly cited factor hindering digital financial services adoption, and an opportunity for financial services to both remind and educate consumers about security steps and best practices.
For example, half of consumers involved in bill management report overall concerns related to paying bills, a number rising to 64% for early millennials (ages 18-26). Among those consumers involved in bill management, 30% reported increased concern with paying bills online due to security.
Among those not using used mobile banking in the past 30 days, security remains the top concern (57%), and is also a factor in why some consumers have not used person-to-person (P2P) payments through a financial institution. In contrast, concern about online security and protecting personal information (24%) ranked third behind preference for other payments methods (44%) and unwillingness to pay a fee (38%) as reasons for not using P2P payments.
Interestingly, consumers view mail as a more secure way to receive bills than other methods among just over half of consumers involved in bill management (52%), while websites (33%) are the next most reported method as more secure compared to other methods for paying bills. The Fiserv report suggested the continued importance of a multichannel strategy that gives consumers choices for how and when they receive and pay their bills to build trust.
Consumers report using more mature services such as online bill pay (59%) and electronic bills (53%), followed by relatively newer services like mobile bill pay (27%), P2P through a financial institution (17%) and digital wallets (15%).
Active online and mobile payments service usage, measured by use of the service in the past 30 days, remained steady year-over-year. However, current users report increased use over the past year across digital wallets (53%), mobile bill pay (48%), financial institution-based P2P service (44%), and electronic bills (32%).
Signaling an opportunity to increase broader awareness and adoption, some consumers expressed confusion about available financial services usage. Nearly half (46%) said they were confused about the various products and services available today. One in three (33%) consumers said there are mobile banking features they would like to use, but do not know how.
Harris Poll conducted The Expectations & Experiences: Consumer Payments survey online within the United States between November 27-December 21, 2017 with 3,114 U.S. adults ages 18 and older who had a checking account with a bank, credit union, brokerage firm or other financial organization and who used a checking account to pay a bill or make a purchase in the past 30 days.