Most members want their mobile banking applications to be free, but new research from S&P Global Market Intelligence finds some demographics are actually more willing than others to pay a monthly fee.
According to the study of 3,897 mobile bank app users, age is the biggest influencer on whether a person is willing to pay for mobile banking apps. The study found that 44% of older millennials age 26 to 35 are willing to pay $1 a month to keep using their apps and 27% are willing to pay $3 a month. Among younger millennials (age 18-25), 45% are willing to pay $1 per month and 20% are willing to pay $3.
Just 38% of Gen Xers and 35% of baby boomers are willing to pay $1 per month for their mobile banking apps, according to S&P Global. About one in five members of each of those age groups is willing to pay $3.
Willingness to pay was stronger among lower to middle-income earners ($35,000 to $74,999 per year and less than $35,000 per year), the study said, with 42% of middle-income and 39% of lower-income earners saying they would pay $1 a month for their mobile banking apps. That compared to 38% of people earning $75,000 to $149,999 per year and 33% of people earning $150,000 or more.
“These results highlight the age correlation at work; 81% of millennial survey respondents reported earning less than $75,000 per year,” the study found. “Willingness to pay $3 per month was fairly even across income cohorts but slightly stronger among the two middle-income brackets.”
The S&P Global survey also included 433 bank app users in all nine U.S. Census regions. It found that people in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania were most willing to pay monthly fees for their bank apps: 45% said they would pay $1 a month and 26% said they would pay $3. People in New England, the Pacific region and mountain states were least willing to pay a $1 monthly fee (37%, 36% and 35%, respectively).
