Most U.K./U.S. Consumers in the Dark about NFC, Surveys Suggest (Dec. 9, 2013)
Few consumers say they have access to NFC payment capabilities on their phones, with only about one in 10 consumers in the U.K. and U.S. reporting they have mobile handsets supporting NFC payment technology, and less than a third of those routinely using their phones to tap and pay, two recent consumer surveys suggest.
Just 35 percent of U.K. adults are aware of NFC payment technology, according to an online survey London-based YouGov conducted in September among 1,051 adults. The results were about the same as a similar poll the firm conducted a year ago in the U.K. Only 9 percent of respondents in the latest poll said they know whether their phone supports NFC payments, and of those who do, just 22 percent plan to make a payment using the technology. More than half, or 56 percent, said they aren’t interested in NFC and 53 percent are concerned about security surrounding NFC payments. Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they see no need for NFC.
“Despite the advances in NFC mobile technology, the industry has yet to increase the awareness nor put forth a compelling value proposition to the consumer to adopt NFC,” John Gilbert, YouGov’s consulting director of technology and telecom, said.
In the U.S., 10 percent of consumers Deloitte recently surveyed said their phone supports NFC payment technology, double the amount who said so in a similar survey the firm conducted in 2012. Of those who said their phones support NFC, about a third said they have used it within the last month. Among the 2,000 consumers Deloitte polled, 62 percent of adults said their mobile devices do not support NFC, while 28 percent said they didn’t know.
A separate report from Germany-based yStats.com this month suggests the number of consumers using mobile devices for payments in Europe is poised to rise. Just 10 percent of European consumers used a mobile device to pay for parking, mass transit or at the POS during 2012, but mobile payments overall are expected to rise from 1 percent of all transactions to “a double-digit” share by 2020, according to yStats’ data.
