UK consumers will pay up to £3 to load a mobile wallet

70% of UK smartphone users and 34% of non-smartphone users say they would be willing to try out NFC payments, a new consumer survey has found.

Simon-Kucher & Partners
SIMON-KUCHER: 'Promoting the uptake of smartphones is key to the growth of mobile payments'

A new survey of UK consumers has found that 92% of smartphone users would be willing to use mobile payments for their purchases and other forms of money transmission. In addition, for four of the five types of mobile payment investigated, customers would also be prepared to pay a fixed fee of up to £3 (US$4.70) to load a mobile wallet from which they could then make unlimited payments until the funds had been spent.

Mobile contactless payments were the most attractive type of mobile payment (70%) and overseas remittances the least (39%), the survey by Simon-Kucher & Partners found.

The survey also identified substantial differences in the willingness to adopt mobile payments between smartphone owners and other mobile phone users. For contactless and NFC, 70% of smartphone users said they would try a service — compared with just 34% of respondents without a smartphone.

“Smartphone users are clearly more advanced in their use of digital payment formats,” says Simon-Kucher’s Ben Snowman. “In part, this may be due to the ease of access that smartphone users have to mobile applications giving them the ability to make payments. However, the differences in the willingness to use mobile payments clearly demonstrates that smartphone users do have a distinct mind set. For mobile payments to take off, banks, telecoms providers, merchants, all the beneficiaries, would do well in promoting the uptake of smartphones.”

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4 comments on this article

  1. I’m really looking forward to this coming to my next mobile but who was surveyed for this? I’m willing to pay exactly the same as i pay for using nfc on my credit card and not a penny more!
    i imagine this is some network idea to make money from it. I’m sure google wallet in the States isn’t charging for card emulation?

  2. I would suggest that Simon-Kucher & Partners did not survey an adequate cross section of British consumers. There is no way that I would pay £3 to anyone to help me spend money. Cash is free, debit and credit cards are also free.
    Also the author of this article should look up the word “unlimited” in the dictionary.

    1. Of course if one is asked directly, and as a consumer, how much one would like to pay in the future for a service that is currently perceived to be free the answer will tend towards zero.

      It’s important to be aware, though, that Simon-Kucher & Partners is a respected consumer pricing consultancy and it is reasonable to assume that they conducted this research in a responsible and rigorous manner.

      Because we’re a trade publication we try to publish only those comments that add to everyone’s understanding, but anyone who fancies a little knee-jerk indignation might also enjoy the very entertaining thread on this over at The Register.

      1. That is a very entertaining read indeed.
        I have no personal gripe with SK&P. As is the case with most surveys, results can almost never be truly subjective. I don’t trust such results unless I am told how many people responded to the survey, and depending on the survey, some basic demographic information.
        A large chunk of UK smartphone users are under the age of 21, many of whom still live at home, don’t have bills to pay and haven’t yet learned financial responsibility.

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