Paying bills can be both time consuming and tedious. Fortunately, there are many options available for consumers to pay bills quickly and securely. Many automatic billing services now exist, allowing the money to be directly withdrawn from a bank account or debit card when a bill is due. Additionally, those who prefer more manual control have the option of using a bill pay service connected to their bank where they can schedule their payments in advance.
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Data for today’s episode is provided by Mercator Advisory Group’s report –North American PaymentsInsights, U.S – Subscription Services and Bill Pay: Card Payments Dominate
Consumers’ Preferred Bill Payment Type Is Driven by Convenience:
- Direct debit withdrawal ranks highest as the most convenient bill payment type by US consumers: 82%.
- Along with convenience, direct debit ranks as the ‘quickest’ bill payment method by 49% of consumers.
- Direct debit also leads all payment types for receiving a notification that a bill has been paid: 32%.
- US consumers rank cash (51%) and checks (44%) as the most secure bill payment methods.
- Using credit cards for bill pay is overwhelmingly favored by consumers who prefer a reward: 57%.
- Comparatively, the next largest group of reward seekers are those who prefer to pay with cash: 15%.
About Report
Mercator Advisory Group’s most recent consumer survey report, Subscription Services and Bill Pay: Card Payments Dominate, from the 2019 Technology Survey of the bi-annual North American PaymentsInsights series, examines U.S. consumers’ current use of subscription services and methods for paying their bills.
The report, which is based on an online panel survey administered to 3,006 U.S. adults in November-December 2019, presents results from questions exploring how adults in the United States use and pay for “box of the month” clubs and online subscription services. It also explores the ways consumers pay their bills and the increasing importance of digital bill payment.
Regarding subscription services in the U.S., consumers are about twice as likely to subscribe to an online subscription service as to subscribe to a “box of the month” service (59% vs 23%). Interestingly, a relatively large portion of American adults (38%) do not subscribe to either type of service.
When it comes to paying bills, the majority of consumers (6 in 10) are currently paying at least some of their bills electronically through either automatic billing or bank account withdrawal. Consumers are paying bills in equal proportion through electronic bill pay via their bank, their biller, or bill pay service.
“This report explores two very important aspects in the payments ecosystem—subscription services and bill payment. Electronic payments play a very large role in both of these areas, and it is important to understand the payments dynamics of both,” stated the author of the report, Peter Reville, director of Primary Research Services at Mercator Advisory Group, which includes the North American PaymentsInsights series.
