Bank of America Finds Unexpected Developments in Mobile Operations

The Trends in Consumer Mobility Report, a Bank of America product, sums up some of the biggest changes, and often provides some unexpected glimpses at the nature of things today. The newest report has emerged, and with it, new surprises have emerged.

Some points are a bit more obvious than others here. Mobile is a huge part of everyday life for the millennials, yet less so for the equally-digital-native Generation Z. From the Presidential election results to the death of Prince, mobile devices and online sources proved the first place to check.

Increasing numbers of Americans in general, not just Gen Z and millennials, turn to mobile devices where money is involved. Sixty-two percent of Americans use a mobile banking app in general, and that’s up from 54 percent back in 2016. Millennials are most likely to use an app, though, at 75 percent.

Millennials also are more likely to turn to an app in the biggest parts of life. For buying a car, 38 percent turn to a mobile banking app, while 45 percent do likewise for saving for college. A clear majority, 52 percent, do so when planning a vacation.

Customers in general turn to the mobile banking apps for several reasons, including paying bills—28 percent were on board with that—and 29 percent in favor of reducing the number of trips required to a bank branch. Mobile check deposit was a winner with 44 percent of respondents, and round-the-clock access was welcome for over half—55 percent—of responses.

It’s kind of a surprise that Gen Z is actually less interested than the millennials in mobile, but it’s not so outlandish. Remember, the millennials were just getting started when mobile emerged, so they were on board in the earliest gee-whiz phase of smartphones. It’s part of their comparatively early lives, so they’re possibly a little more closely connected than most any other generation. All the previous generations—Gen X and before—remember life without smartphones, and Gen Z finds them as commonplace as most everyone else found cars, so there’s likely some reason behind the dichotomy.

In the end, the Bank of America study provides us with a lot of insight, and shows us that the phenomenon of mobile is likely to only keep gaining ground, even if for different reasons.