Mobile Payments -

UK more open to mobile wallets than US

New research carried out by Consult Hyperion suggests a majority of UK consumers would use mobile wallets. This 58% figure in favour is in contrast with the 64% of US consumers who say they would never use a mobile wallet.

Consumers were asked who they would trust most to issue a mobile wallet: banks, telcos, Google or major retailers, with a final option of saying no-one because they would not use such a service. The most trusted issuers for UK consumers were banks at 34%, followed by Google at 14%, mobile operators at 6% and retailers such as Debenhams at 4%. In contrast US figures were banks at 20%, followed by Google at 10%, retailers such as Walmart at 3% and phone service providers at 2%.

A pie chart showing Most trusted issuer of mobile wallets - UK

Most trusted issuer of mobile wallets – UK

“Asking consumers what they think about something they have never used is always risky,” explains Consult Hyperion Global Ambassador Dave Birch. “We have to be cautious about the answers, but it’s interesting to see that banks retain trust for this type of service and that retailers, despite their obvious suitability for such a system, come last in terms of trust in the UK.”

Both age and gender made a difference to results with British men being more willing to use a wallet – only 37% said they never would against 44% of British women. Younger people were more open to the idea than the older generation with the group most likely to use wallets being men of 18-14 at 73% whereas the group least likely to is women aged 55-64 at 31%. In contrast, 18-24 year old men in the US were one of the most conservative groups with 71% saying they would never use a mobile wallet.

The group most likely to trust banks in the UK were the 35-44 year olds, whereas 18-24 year olds were the group most in favour of Google. The only demographic segment that favour retailers as issuers were women aged 25-34, but even for them retailers came second behind banks as the preferred issuer.

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