Instant Payouts to Consumers from Businesses Tripled in 2021

Same-day automatic clearing house (ACH) has long been the most common way consumers receive disbursements — payments from their employers, their insurers and even from the United States government — but that is about to change. The share of consumers receiving disbursements via instant payments tripled between 2020 and 2021, with 17% now receiving them instantly, putting instant payments on track to overtake same-day ACH as the most common disbursement receipt method as soon as 2022.

This is just one of the key findings uncovered in The State Of Consumer Disbursements: Who Paid Consumers — And How Quickly, a PYMNTS and Ingo Money collaboration. We surveyed a census-balanced panel of 2,951 U.S. consumers about their awareness of instant disbursements, whether they receive them and whether they would be willing to pay extra for instant options. The responses were used to gauge the scale of opportunity that organizations face by offering these recipients the instant payment methods they demand.

Key findings from our research include:

• Thirty-seven percent of consumers say they are more familiar with instant payments now than ever before. In total, 50% more consumers say they know what instant payments are now than did one year ago, underscoring how central the past year has been to driving instant disbursements awareness.
• Forty-six percent of consumers now say they would choose to receive instant disbursements if they could. The trouble is that consumers are often given no choice in how they receive disbursements, meaning instant disbursements are not an option for many despite consumers’ rising interest in them.
• Thirty-three percent of consumers would pay extra to receive instant disbursements. This is double the share who said the same in 2020 when just 15% of consumers were willing to pay an added fee to receive disbursements instantly.

Consumers’ mounting interest in instant disbursement options, even their willingness to pay extra for them, is just part of a much broader unfolding story about how their disbursement receipt preferences can change over time. In The State Of Consumer Disbursements: Who Paid Consumers — And How Quickly analyzes the drivers behind consumers’ growing awareness of and demand for instant payments and faster disbursement options.

To learn more about consumers’ rising demand for instant disbursement options, download the report.