Western Union has just released its latest Index that has revealed the most recent bill paying trends.
The latest Money Mindset Index has just been released by The Western Union Company, revealing its insight into mobile payments and the growing importance of their role in paying bills.
The study revealed that a rapidly increasing number of consumers are using smartphones and tablets for this purpose.
The study showed that among American consumers, 12 percent of the respondents said that they had intentions to use mobile payments for an increasing number of their bills. Another 39 percent said that they plan to use the internet for this purpose on a more frequent basis in 2013.
Among the respondents 14 percent intended to make mobile payments within the next half year.
Those individuals said that in the next 6 months, they planned to use a smartphone or tablet for making mobile payments for their regular bills. According to the senior vice president of Western Union, David Shapiro, “Consumers are increasingly looking for new ways to manage their bills, which points to the need for continued innovation by service providers across the payments industry.”
Shapiro also added that “Less than one-third of payments occur via non-electronic channels, and consumers continue to use a mix of payment methods that provide enhanced choice, flexibility, control and convenience around their lifestyles and cash flow.”
Additional findings that were reported by this mobile payments study include the following:
• 2 percent of bills are paid by way of smartphones
• 3 percent of bills are paid using traditional landline telephones
• 19.6 percent of bills are paid using recurring payment or automatic deduction services
• 46.5 percent of bills are paid by way of a bank, credit union, or biller’s website.
The Western Union Payments Money Mindset Index was held in December 2012, by Javelin Strategy and Research. This mobile payments study involved the participation of 3,002 randomly selected individuals in the United States and examined the various behaviors and trends that are forming and being maintained for paying various types of household bills such as utilities, credit cards, loans, and so on.
