Interest in Tap-And-Pay Payments Is Not as Strong as Awareness, a New Poll Says

Contactless payments made by tapping a smart phone against a point-of-sale terminal are increasing, according to a Harris Poll survey released Thursday.

The survey of more than 2,200 U.S. adults found that the proportion of the general population who either experienced or witnessed a contactless smart-phone payment increased from 17% in 2013 to 20% in 2015. Among smart-phone users, the percentages are 23% in 2013 and 26% in 2015.

Interest in the payment method, however, remains stable, at least among those equipped with smart phones. As a whole, 27% of Americans expressed interest in tap-and-pay payments, compared with 24% in 2013. Among smart-phone users, interest is unchanged at 37%.

Of those uninterested in the payment method, 64% of smart phones said security—not wanting to store sensitive information on their phones—was the reason, and 52% didn’t want to send such data to the merchant’s payment device.

Despite these apparent hurdles, 71% of smart-phone users expect tap-and-pay payments to replace payment cards and 62% expect it to displace cash.

The timeframe for this transformation, however, is not any time soon. Thirty-six percent of smart-phone users say the plastic card displacement will happen within the next five years, and 30% say it will take that long for the payment method to displace cash payments.

The results are not surprising, says Brian Yeager, an analyst at New York City-based eMarketer Inc., an advisory firm. Many factors, such as merchant acceptance, will play a role, he says. “Consumers need to see value in it,” Yeager tells Digital Transactions News. He expects mobile payments use to grow by double-digits over the next few years, but advised that it’s starting from a very small base. Catalysts for increasing adopting will include greater merchant acceptance and the integration of mobile payments into smart phones, he says.

Other types of mobile-payments activity also appears to be increasing. Making or witnessing a payment made via a card reader attached to a smart phone increased from 32% in 2013 to 36% among all consumers, and from 43% to 46% among smart-phone users.

Using a mobile device in place of a transit ticket increased from 32% in 2013 to 36% in 2015. Using a smart phone in lieu of an entertainment ticket increased from 19% to 25%.