CU Members Using Google Pay & Apple Pay More
PSCU finds mobile wallet apps are growing much faster than other means of card spending.
Credit union members are increasingly relying on their phone apps to complete purchases, led by Apple Pay and Google Pay, according to a PSCU report released Monday.
The St. Petersburg, Fla.-based payments CUSO’s Transaction Trends Update showed members spent 30% more through mobile wallet debit transactions in Week 45, which ended Nov. 8, than they did in Week 45 a year earlier.
Debit card spending in Week 45 was 17% higher than a year earlier.
The four-week trend was similar. Mobile wallet debit transactions rose 33% for the four weeks ending Nov. 8, compared with 16.3% for all debit purchases.
Mobile wallet purchases using card cards also showed far more growth than other means of credit card spending. Mobile wallet credit card spending rose 12% for Week 45, slightly down from the four-week average of 14%.
Overall credit card spending remained positive for a 10th consecutive week, rising 2.8%, but the gain was significantly slower than the four-week average of 4.9%.
The PSCU report said consumers continue to embrace mobile wallet transactions as a safer alternative for card-present transactions.
PSCU supports six mobile wallet providers, but 99% of the transactions in Week 45 were through the Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay mobile phone applications.
For debit, Apple Pay has the largest share of mobile wallet transaction volume at 83%, followed by Samsung Pay at 9% and Google Pay at 8%. For credit, Apple Pay leads with 77%, followed by Google Pay at 13% and Samsung Pay at 10%.
Among the mobile wallets, Google Pay has seen the fastest growth, with debit transactions up 47.9% and credit transactions up 17.2% year over year. Apple Pay has also been strong, with debit transactions up 34.7% and credit transactions up 16% year over year.
Samsung Pay’s debit transactions fell 6.5% and credit transactions fell 12.8% in Week 45.
PSCU’s data indicated contactless card and mobile wallets are displacing cash transactions.
The average purchase amount via mobile wallets is lower than overall transaction size, particularly with debit cards. The average debit ticket was $42.79, while the averages were $17.53 via Apple Pay is $17.88 via Google Pay and 18.29 via Samsung Pay.
A 2019 survey by Oakland, Calif.-based payments firm Marqeta found American millennials were twice as likely as baby boomers to say that a mobile app was the most important benefit offered by their bank or credit union. Baby boomers were twice as likely as millennials to say that an in-person presence was the most important benefit.
PSCU’s reports are on a same-store basis, meaning a member credit union’s results are included only if it also has results for the prior period. In Week 44 the report was based on 9.1 million credit transactions and 38.6 million debit transactions.
For credit card purchases, the leading regions in Week 45 were the Southeast (+6.2%) and Southwest (+4.2%), while spending declined in Hawaii (-4.2%) and New England (-6%).
Debit purchases rose highest in the Southeast (+20.5), while the weakest gains were in Hawaii (+9.6%), New England (+12.1%) and Rocky Mountain (+12.1%).