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Overcoming perceptions

The most confounding problem fac- The most confounding problem facing
ing mobile payments isn't the tech-
nology; it's consumer perceptions. I mobile payments isn't the technology;
confess I'm guilty of feeling less than
secure using a smartphone to make it's consumer perceptions.
payments, and feeling that paying
with cash or card is faster than tak-
ing out the device, pulling up the app mobile payments. For example, 22 percent claimed they weren't tech savvy, 17.7
and making a payment. percent said they're fearful of losing their mobile devices and 9.3 percent cited
frustration setting up a new payment feature (count me among this group).
A survey released this year by
Cardtronics shows most Americans The Simon-Kucher survey results contained these warnings for mobile pay-
(65 percent) perceive cash as the ments providers: don't count on peer pressure and don't discount the power of
fastest way to pay; EMV cards come banking relationships; three quarters of consumers would prefer using a mo-
in at a close second with 62 percent bile payment app offered by their primary bank. "Social pressure has minimal
perceiving these transactions as fast. influence on mobile payment adoption," the firm added.
Fewer than half (49 percent) said mo-
bile is a fast way to pay.
Patti Murphy is senior editor at The Green Sheet and self-described payments maven of the
Force of habit is probably the biggest Fourth Estate. Follow her on Twitter @GS_PayMaven.
deterrent to mobile payment usage.
People don't change payment hab-
its overnight. If that were the case,
checks would've disappeared a gen-
eration ago. I'm old enough to remem-
ber when checks were a preferred
payment method at merchant check-
outs. And when workers queued up
every Friday in grocery stores to cash
paychecks, grocers would do it for
free since check cashing customers
were apt to spend some of that money
at their stores. Now, most workers are
getting paid via direct deposit and
using debit cards in place of checks
at the POS.

A study by Simon-Kucher & Partners
suggested psychological biases are
the key impediment to mobile pay-
ment adoption. "In designing mobile
payment features, we have neglected
to consider the behavioral-based forc-
es shaping the U.S. consumer's pay-
ment choices and habits," said Wei Ke,
Ph.D., managing partner in the global
banking division at the consultancy.

Among Americans surveyed by
Simon-Kucher, 40 percent cited con-
cerns over fraud and identity theft
as reasons for not using mobile pay-
ments. An even greater share of rea-
sons given involved a lack of confi-
dence in their ability to properly use

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