By J. Preston Carter, J.D., LL.M.
A report by The Pew Charitable Trusts on mobile payments users found that they are more likely to be younger, live in urban areas, and have bank accounts and college degrees. Its findings come from a nationally representative telephone survey that examined consumers’ opinions, experiences, and expectations of mobile payments. The survey followed focus groups that Pew previously convened as a first step in understanding consumers’ views on the potential benefits and risks of mobile payments.
Pew’s report defines mobile payments users as consumers who have made an online or point of-sale purchase, paid a bill, or sent or received money using a Web browser, text message, or app on a smartphone.
The key finding are:
- Mobile payments users are more likely than nonusers to be millennials or Generation Xers, live in metropolitan areas, and have bank accounts and college or postgraduate degrees. Of these demographic categories, age is the most predictive of mobile payments use, particularly as it relates to smartphone ownership.
- Making a purchase through a smartphone Web browser or downloaded app is the most common mobile payments activity.
- Consumers see a number of benefits to using mobile payments, particularly receiving alerts, electronic receipts, rewards, discounts, and help with budgeting.
- Consumers often don’t know how mobile payments compare with other payment methods in terms of convenience, cost, privacy, and security.
- Barriers to use include concerns about the safety of mobile payments technology, which might result in identity theft or the loss of funds, and poor compatibility with cash-based transactions.
- Consumers want the data they generate by use of mobile payments to be secure and protected and access to it to be limited across entities, from phone carriers to app developers and advertisers.
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