Compass Plus Survey Reveals the Growth of the Multi-Channel Consumer

A recent survey conducted by Compass Plus, an international provider of innovative retail banking and electronic payments software to processors and financial institutions, has revealed that consumer trust in newer payment methods has declined significantly in the last year. However, despite this lack of trust, the results also demonstrate that consumers are still increasing the breadth of channels they use to make payments.

The survey, in which 650 UK residents answered questions about their banking and payments habits, found that 71.3% of respondents believed mobile payments to be the least secure payment method. The results show that whilst the number of people making mobile payments has increased, nearly double the amount of people perceive the mobile device to be the least secure when compared to the 2013 Compass Plus survey results (38%). Contactless payments with contactless cards (46.8%) remained solidly in in second place (41.7% in 2013) on the list of the perceived least secure ways to pay.

For the third consecutive year, cash was seen as the most secure (72.6%), and over the last year trust in debit and credit card payments on both the high street and over Internet increased by over 20%, in some cases doubling the respective figures from 2013. These results clearly indicate that consumers are much more trusting of payment methods they are familiar with and that this level of trust directly feeds into how they choose to pay on a day-to-day frequency.

The survey revealed that once again cash is king,  not only as the most trusted form of payment, but also as the most popular way to pay, with nearly all respondents claiming to have withdrawn cash from an ATM in the past month (95.8%). This was closely followed by using a bank card on the high street and Internet (84% and 73.3% respectively).

When the results were compared to the 2013 survey, the number of payment methods consumers had used in the previous month had increased. This illustrates that whilst the majority of consumers feel that certain payment methods are not as secure as others, when given the option they will still choose to use them if they offer convenience, though not nearly to the same frequency as the more trusted options.

“Our survey results show that regardless of industry speculation cash is still the most trusted and used payment method,” said Maria Nottingham, CEO at Compass Plus GB. “What is really clear from these results is the growth of the multi-channel consumer. People want the choice to carry out different transactions using different channels and payment methods, making the proliferation of any one channel in the future appear unlikely. It will, however, be interesting to see the correlation between trust and convenience for the mobile channel as consumers become more educated about the security measures in place and it crosses over into the mainstream.”