Millennials Agree–Convenience Rules, Even Without A Bank or Credit Union
By Tom
Since we are unveiling our latest consumer research report tomorrow, “Growth and Revenue Potential for Emerging Financial Services,” this week, we have been closely following the news seeking stories about trends for emerging banking products. A story from last week’s USA Today, “Millennials big fans of prepaid cards, payday loans,” validated a number of points from our own research, and revealed an additional weak point in the product strategy many of today’s financial institutions are adopting – if they don’t provide these new convenience services, customers will find them elsewhere.
According the report cited in USA Today, millennials want access to cash and credit, and they want it now. Many of the new generation of financial customers are bypassing banks and credit unions for their financial needs and looking elsewhere for fast access to cash:
“The survey of more than 1,000 people ages 18 to 34 by alternative financial products company Think Finance found that while 92% currently use a bank, nearly half, or 45%, say they have also used outside services including prepaid cards, check cashing, pawn shops and payday loans.”
Even though the fees associated with these services can be exorbitant, and certainly more than is being charged by most banks and credit unions, there are three primary reasons that the new generation of customers seem to gravitate toward sources other than banks for their immediate financial needs:
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