Fiserv: Millions of Consumers Want Mobile Bill Pay, Options (Dec. 15, 2014)
The growth in consumer popularity of mobile bill pay features continues unabated as 27 million U.S. households with access to the Internet are paying at least one bill from their phones, an increase of nearly 70 percent compared with 2013, according to The Seventh Annual Billing Household Survey from Fiserv Inc., a Brookfield, Wis.-based financial services technology provider.
The most popular bills paid by phone include mobile (15 million), cable (14 million) and electricity (8 million). The Fiserv survey found that among smartphone owners, 60 percent reported that a mobile payment option would improve their satisfaction with the biller. Paying bills with a tablet is also on the rise, with 19 million households paying a bill using their tablet devices each month in 2014, up from 13 million last year.
But a mobile option isn’t the only thing consumers want from bill payment services; they want choices, according to Fiserv. On average, consumers use three bill payment methods each month, and many switch methods from month to month, according to the survey. Also, consumers want expedited or emergency payment options because they prefer to make urgent, same-day payments via biller Websites (46 percent), over the phone (41 percent), via financial institution Websites (30 percent) or through a walk-in payment location (29 percent). The survey also found that consumers are interested in being sent digital bill pay reminders or alerts. Approximately 66 million respondents are interested in setting up alerts, “which can streamline and simplify their finance routines and prevent late payments,” according to the survey.
The survey was conducted in May 2014 by The Marketing Workshop on behalf of Fiserv. It was completed by 3,021 respondents at least 21 years old and responsible for paying bills. The results are representative of the U.S. population of online households, which is approximately 99 million out of 122 million total U.S. households.
See related stories:
