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People are using mobile wallets more and more every year. In its most recent Banking and Payments Intelligence report, JD Power found that between the first quarter of 2021 and the third quarter of 2022, the percentage of US retail bank customers who said they used a mobile wallet at some point in the past three months 38% to 49%.
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However, the same report states that despite society going cashless and modern life dictating that everyone carry their devices with them at all times, people still prefer the convenience of cash, credit and debit cards. The percentage of people polled who claimed not to use a mobile wallet because cards are more convenient increased from 47% to 49% in 2022.
Another reason consumers said they did not use a mobile wallet within the last three months in Q1 2021 and Q3 2022 was that they had heard about mobile wallets but never installed one (37% to 24%), worried about security (25% to 21%) and found them difficult to use (6% to 5%).
While other barriers to the widespread adoption of mobile wallets are eroding (for example, security concerns), customers are increasingly satisfied with the simplicity of paying with plastic, and want to communicate this to banks and card issuers. How they serve their customers in the coming year,” the report said.
Generally speaking, a mobile wallet is like a physical wallet. The difference is that one sits on your mobile device while the other is carried in your purse or pocket. Despite the reluctance to adopt the widespread use of mobile wallets, they are an attractive option with lots of advantages.
1. Contactless
Most payments can be made using tap-to-pay with contactless credit cards, but in a world increasingly moving towards contactless interactions, mobile wallets allow consumers to transact without touching anything more than their phone. enables.
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2. Cut Clutter
As Nasdaq put it, “Most of us will feel fine walking around without a wallet as long as we can still buy things.” Along those same lines, digital wallets can manage all your debit and credit cards, memberships, boarding passes and more without adding anything else.
3. Security
Additionally, mobile wallets are considered more secure than physical cards. You need a passcode, facial recognition or print scan before you can make a payment, and the payments themselves don’t expose sensitive account information because they use encrypted tokens.
4. Convenience
Those who believe that using a card is more convenient may be deprived of the access that mobile wallets can afford. Not only can you get rid of carrying a bulky wallet with multiple cards, but you only need to wave your phone over the Near-Field Communication (NFC) reader for a second to make a payment.
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5. Save Time
Mobile wallets enable faster transaction completion. An instant contactless payment eclipses debit or cash payments every time. A study by American Express found that contactless transactions are 63% faster than cash and 53% faster than those using traditional credit cards.
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