Mobile bill pay realities

by Snarketing 2.0

by. Ron Shevlin

Welcome to Delusions and Reality Week here at Snarketing 2.0. On Monday, it was Disruptive Delusions Day, today we discuss the realities of mobile bill pay (in the US).

SAP released the results of a global survey it conducted which found that:

“Half of the respondents surveyed turn to their devices to pay a bill (55%), make a bank transfer (52%) and set up a new account (48%).”

Needless to say, the “half pay bills with a mobile device” snippet has caught the eye of many people, even making the headline of a Bank Technology News article.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind when evaluating this 55% statistic. First, the study was conducted in 17 countries, so the number of consumers in the US that pay bills using a mobile device may be very different.

And, in fact, it is. A study conducted by Aite Group on how US consumers pay monthly bills (tracking 15 of the most popular bills that account for ~85% of all bills paid), the percentage that pay any of these bills on a smartphone can be counted with the fingers on one hand. If you consider a tablet to be a mobile device, then you won’t need more than the other hand to total up the percentage.

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