My view into the millennial payments world is often influenced by my own adult children. Uber, for example, made sense when one of my kids said “that’s how we avoid DUIs” “and I don’t have to worry about having cash in my pocket”. I certainly don’t drink and drive, but it crystalized the concept. Same thing goes for repaying friends. Settling expenses, whether they be for sharing an Uber, splitting household bills among roommates, or splitting restaurant bills make total sense with mobile applications rather than hitting cash machines.
• Consumers across generational lines prefer to mobile applications as opposed to cash when paying other people, according to the recent U.S. Bank Cash Behavior Survey.• Breaking the results down by generations, 49 percent of millennials (ages 19-36), 44 percent of Gen X (ages 37-52) and 32 percent of baby boomers (ages 53-71) have made digital payments.
• ATM withdrawals and branch visits are slowly declining, while mobile transactions are increasing dramatically year over year. … [T]he broad availability of free, easy-to-use and fast-acting technology is supplanting the need for cash.”
The U.S. Bank site provides more detail on the survey.
• The U.S. Bank Cash Behavior Survey also found that consumers aren’t carrying much cash with them or using it for payments on a frequent basis. Overall, 50 percent of survey respondents reported carrying cash less than half of the time.
• When they do carry cash, nearly half of consumers surveyed keep less than $20 on hand, and 76 percent keep less than $50. The instances where they spend this cash appear to be shrinking as well, with 46 percent claiming they use cash fewer than eight days each month, and 5 percent saying they never use it.
There is no doubt that cash, like checks, is becoming less relevant.
Overview by Brian Riley, Director, Credit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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