It’s not a surprise to learn that mobile banking continues to become more and more popular.
That’s the news coming out of Bank of America’s 2016 Trends in Consumer Mobility Report, which “explores evolving mobile behaviors and trends among adult consumers across the country.” As smartphones continue to become more useful, and tied into our everyday connectivity, having instant access to your finances just makes sense. According to Pew Research’s Technology Device Ownership: 2015, 68% of U.S. adults have a smartphone — up from 35% in 2011.
From checking account balances to paying bills to depositing checks, most bank financial apps can do pretty much everything you need to do when it comes to managing your money. According to the report, about 54 percent of consumers use a mobile banking app.
More than one-third (35 percent) of consumers access the app once a day or more, while an overwhelming majority (84 percent) check once a week or more. This is up significantly from 20 percent and 76 percent in 2015, respectively. Overall, millennials are the most likely to constantly check the app.
The interesting news I’m finding in the report is that notifications from the bank app are incredibly popular, and often spark interaction.
Nearly nine in 10 (87 percent) use mobile banking alerts and notifications, with fraud/unusual activity (54 percent), deposit made (52 percent) and low balance (43 percent) the most popular.
Almost 90% of mobile banking users have notifications set up? That’s awesome. That’s automation. Let them system work and notify you when you need to take action. And, more often than not, users are taking action. “Nearly three-quarters (71 percent) of consumers have taken action as the result of a mobile banking alert,” says the report. “Contacting their bank (42 percent), transferring money between accounts (39 percent) and changing spending habits (24 percent) are the top behaviors.”
I have to be honest – I don’t notifications set up for my mobile banking app on my phone. I tend to turn off notifications from almost every app because they’re almost always abused and sent way too often. But I’m re-considering turning them on for my banking app after seeing these numbers.
Mobile Banking and Payment Trends
There’s other useful tidbits about mobile banking and finances in the report, including:
- Two in five (40 percent) respondents would use or already use their phone to make purchases at checkout, which is up from 34 percent in 2015, and millennials (57 percent) are the most likely to do so.
- When asked how consumers prefer to pay someone back, digital methods (28 percent), including payment and mobile banking apps, are nearing traditional methods, such as cash (57 percent) and check (40 percent). Older millennials are the most likely to use digital methods and the least likely to write a check.
- The majority (57 percent) of consumers would consider or are already using a peer-to-peer money transfer service from their bank. Older millennials (77 percent) are the most comfortable using P2P.
It’s a good read. Take a look at the full report here.
