Electronic wallet awareness is growing

Public awareness of electronic wallets is growing as more companies benefit from purchases and bill paying by consumers from their mobile devices, a new study found. The Consumer Payments Preferences Study by Phoenix Marketing International estimated that about one-third of all American households and at least half of smartphone users are aware of electronic wallets that allow transactions such as money transfers and features that include rewards applications. While most respondents to the survey were generally positive about the development of the technology, those who had doubts were concerned principally about the security of their financial transactions by debit cards, prepaid stored value cards and traditional credit cards. One in six responses indicated that people would use electronic wallets if those services are available to them, although most respondents preferred to use them in conjunction with accounts at their existing financial institutions. More than 4,200 consumers were contacted for Phoenix’s latest annual study earlier this year. Those conducting the survey asked participants what types of services they desired beyond basic transactions in order to gauge the appeal of add-ons, including information management, loyalty programs, rewards and transactional features such as tracking purchases. The increasing use of mobile devices for electronic payments is in step with growing popularity of prepaid cards used to handle a variety of transactions.