A major investigation into US consumers’ attitudes to mobile payments has found that concerns over how well they would be protected against loss should an issue arise is now the major barrier to widespread adoption of the technology.
The findings are based on a nationally representative survey conducted by The Pew Charitable Trusts. This captured Americans’ experiences and opinions of a wide range of payment methods, including mobile payments, credit, debit and prepaid cards, cheques and money orders, and cash.
The researchers divided the results into respondents who had used a mobile payment method in the past year and those who had not.
They also conducted interviews with payment industry executives and performed a detailed analysis of 12 mobile payment providers’ practices and policies for storing, using and protecting consumer funds, and handling disputes.
Question of trust
Nearly 30% of survey respondents reported that they opted not to use mobile payments on at least some occasions because they were concerned about a potential loss of funds.
“Consumers trust protections on debit and credit cards more than those on mobile payments,” Pew says.
“Respondents were more likely to say mobile payments are ‘poorly protected’ (38%) than prepaid (28%), debit (22%) or credit cards (9%).
“This perception held even for mobile payments that involved a credit card and were therefore subject to the same financial safeguards as other transactions conducted with those cards.
“Just 35% of consumers said a mobile payment that uses a credit card was well protected, compared with 61% for a credit card on its own.”
Overall, 15% of consumers said they had experienced an issue with a payment method (mobile or traditional) in the past year. These problems included overpayment, disputes with