While online banking “remains king” when it comes to Canadians preference for how they bank, an increasing amount of people are beginning to embrace mobile, according to a newly released report from ING Direct.
The report states that 41 percent of Canadians say they are open to doing more traditional banking functions, like paying bills on their mobile devices, a number that has climbed from 38 percent in 2012. Meanwhile, one in 10 Canadians say they use their mobile device to do banking several times a week, a number that increases to one in five (20 percent) Canadians when looking exclusively at 18 – 34 year olds.
“Technology is rapidly changing the way we manage some of our most traditional day-to-day responsibilities, and a growing number of Canadians are downloading clever applications,” said technology expert Marc Saltzman. “As a freelancer who is often on the road, I – like many others – rely heavily on my smartphone to get my banking done when it’s convenient for me, so it’s ideal that we’re moving towards a system that makes depositing cheques easier.”
It seems that the last remaining reason keeping banking customers from visiting physical locations is to deposit cheques (other than other information that generally requires human interaction). In fact, ING found that a third of banking consumers act this way. Nearly half (46 percent) of respondents who already use mobile banking say they would consider depositing a cheque to their bank account using their mobile device. That number more than doubled since 2012, when only 22 percent of Canadians said they would consider depositing a cheque through this method.
For those Canadians who are already mobile bankers, over half (56 percent) indicate they use their mobile devices to check their bank account balances, while over a quarter (27 percent) use it to pay bills. Not surprisingly, 89 per cent of those who bank on their mobile phones agree that being able to bank on-the-go has made their lives easier, largely due to the amount of time it has saved them. In fact, 72 percent reported that they save up to two hours every month by banking from their mobile devices.
The survey also revealed that 44 percent of Canadians have used mobile banking to get them “out of a bind”, such as checking their account balance before making a purchase at the register, emailing money to a friend or making a last-minute bill payment.
Canadians also admit to banking from their mobile device in some rather unusual places; One quarter (25 percent) of respondents say they’ve done it in the bathroom while other respondents mentioned banking at a nightclub, in class and while hunting.