Are Millennials Not Interested in Mobile Payments?

On the surface, it sounds like a ludicrous question. Why wouldn’t Millennials—currently those in the 18 to 34 age bracket (give or take)-be interested in mobile payments?

After all, this is the future of payment technology, right? But a new study from Trustev suggests that there might be some issues holding the rise of mobile payments back a bit.

The Trustev study turned to 1,000 Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 to see what they thought about alternative payment systems, among other things, and the results were telling.

91 percent of Millennials had at least one debit card, and routinely used them. 80 percent, meanwhile, had a standard credit card. When it comes to online payments, the older Millennials—between 25 and 34—were more likely to turn to a credit card, and 67 percent of the younger Millennials were following suit.

What’s more, alternative payment systems weren’t unknown to the Millennial crowd, just often unused. 66 percent of Millennials reported having at least one payment app installed—be it Venmo, PayPal, or something else, but these apps weren’t often used.

Bitcoin was also sufficiently unappealing. While 63 percent have heard of it, just 12 percent have actually used it.

Apple Pay was used by 14 percent of respondents, though just half of the respondents have an iPhone, and fewer than half have the necessary iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus to support Apple Pay.

The bad news here is that it’s clear that there isn’t a lot of traffic for mobile payment systems, and this is especially bad given that the Millennials are likely to be the next big-spending generation.

However, there are some points here that need to be noted; we’re talking about a sample size of 1,000 users. Given the Millennial generation will have about 75.3 million folks in the US to its credit by the end of the year, as a Pew Research study found back in January, getting a sense of a generation’s habits from 1,000 people leaves more than a little room for doubt.

Plus, it’s also important to note that many of the alternative payment systems in question are still in their early stages. It’s not like you can pay for a tank of gas with Bitcoin yet. Buying a week’s groceries on Apple Pay is more plausible, but Apple Pay itself hasn’t even celebrated its first birthday yet.

Likewise, Millennials are still establishing themselves financially, and perhaps a push towards greater financial education and loyalty can drive spending towards mobile.