Mobile payments and European millennials: saying and doing are two different things

Cara O’nions, Vocalink: millennials are still waiting for the “Uber moment” of payments

Vocalink has unveiled its comprehensive research into the habits and perceptions of millennials when it comes to mobile payments. Turns out, this group is still waiting for the “Uber moment” of payments.

The research has been divided into three geographies – the US, Europe and Asia (the latter is yet to be published).

Al three are Vocalink’s sweet spots – it is building a new real-time payments system in the US (set to go live next year); its tech is underpinning the UK’s Faster Payments scheme (the contract runs until 2020); and in Asia, it has built the FAST payments system for Singapore and is in the process of doing the same for Thailand (go-live expected next year).

In Europe, Vocalink collected views from 4,000+ people aged 18-35, in the UK, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

Whilst this group extensively uses mobile phones in their daily lives, when it comes to mobile payments technology only a quarter of UK millennials are using it. And the majority – 58% – are most likely to use their own bank’s mobile payment service. The runner-up is PayPal with 49%.

Cara O’nions, Vocalink’s director of marketing and customer insights, who presented the report findings, commented that the survey respondents did not view PayPal as a newcomer but rather as “a well-established, trusted provider”.

Elsewhere in Europe, banks and PayPal were also on top of the payment preferences list.

One in five European millennials who have attempted to use mobile payment tech have abandoned it.

In Germany, 55% of millennials have never used mobile payment technology. Furthermore, Germany is still very much reliant on cash – with 70% of Germans paying for groceries in cash versus 61% on card.

In Italy, 28% of surveyed millennials are regularly depositing cheques.

In the UK, whilst the awareness of Apple Pay is very high the actual uptake is just 2% amongst those surveyed.

Jim Wadsworth, Vocalink: There is a big gap between talking about and actually doing when it comes to mobile payments

As Jim Wadsworth, MD at Accura (Vocalink’s new data analytics service), commented at the report’s launch, “there is a big gap between talking about and actually doing” when it comes to mobile payments.

O’nions comments that “while payment preferences differ across the world, our research shows that in nearly all cases millennials are consistently looking for substance over style – technology that is seamless and secure and allows them to make payments instantly.

“At this moment in time, it would seem millennials are still following their parents’ lead when it comes to making payments, using methods that they know and trust. So while attitudinally millennials may be game-changers, the research shows that more conservative behaviours are evident when it comes to making payments.”

O’nions goes on to say “it is clear that this group have set the bar high in terms of expectations, and will only embrace new payment technology that can demonstrate ubiquity, speed, ease of use and security.

“It is particularly interesting to see that millennials would prefer to remain with traditional payment providers while they are waiting for advancements in the market, and if they were to consider mobile payments in the future, the majority would prefer that this was offered by their bank.”