Cash Remains Favored Person-to-Person Payment Option Even Among Millennials

Cash, it seems, remains king, especially among younger consumers who want to use person-to-person payments.

Of the 1,000 18-to-34-year-old U.S. consumers surveyed, 58% prefer cash for their P2P payments, says GoBankingRates.com, a financial-services site that conducted the online survey in January.

The popularity of cash, even among Millennials, for P2P payments was also confirmed late last year in research released by Aite Group, a Boston-based firm.

Electronic P2P providers shouldn’t be disheartened, though, as 26% preferred being paid electronically via an app like Venmo, Square Cash, Google Wallet, or PayPal, according to the GoBankingRates.com report.

Within this grouping, PayPal Holdings Inc.’s service was favored by 11%; followed by Venmo, which PayPal bought in 2013, at 6%; Google Wallet, 5.1%; and Square Cash, 4.3%.

Checks and electronic bank transfers were tied as the preferred choices for 8% of consumers. “Compared with cash and payments apps, checks and bank transfers are viewed as less convenient and potentially riskier because they might involve sharing more sensitive personal and financial information than other payment methods,” GoBankingRates.com says.

The survey also looked at P2P preferences by gender. More women—64%—prefer cash than men, 53%. Men are more attuned to choosing electronic P2P methods. For PayPal, the split is 10% women, 12% men; Venmo, 6% women, 7% men; Google Wallet, 4% women, 6% men; and Square Cash, 4% women, 5% men.

P2P providers shouldn’t fret much. Fully one-third of card-holding consumers are now using a P2P service, according to the latest Cardbeat survey from Auriemma Consulting Group, a New York City-based firm. The most frequently cited purpose, at 94%, is sending money “far away,” indicating many users view P2P as an alternative to wiring money or even as a way to make online purchases, according to Auriemma.