Just 3 percent of consumers currently use their mobile phones as a means of making payments, according to a recent survey from the Consumer Payments Research Center (CPRC) at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
While two-thirds of consumers have used online banking and 10 percent have either downloaded a banking mobile phone application or set up text messaging capabilities for their phone to do banking, many are slow to adopt the use of mobile payments, according to a statement. Only 2.1 percent of consumers have made a mobile payment by sending a text message and 1.2 percent have used contactless, or Near Field Communication (NFC) devices, to pay for a purchase.
"There could be several factors contributing to the slow pace of mobile payment adoption," said Joanna Stavins, senior economist and policy advisor at the CPRC. "People may be satisfied with the payment instruments and methods they now have, and they don’t see a lot of value in adding mobile payment to the mix. Concerns about security might be on their minds as well. Moreover, lack of merchant acceptance of NFC payments and lack of commercially available phones equipped with the NFC chip also prevent mobile payments from being a broadly adopted payment option."
