Knowing which methods people use to make payments is great. Knowing why they make those decisions and how their behavior can be influenced is even better.
Those are the questions TSYS aims to answer through its Second Consumer Payment Choice Report – a study covering everything from ways to influence spend, to consumer awareness of alternative payments, to why consumers still prefer to use debit in their daily transactions.
PYMNTS.com spoke with Sarah Hartman, senior director at TSYS, to learn more about some of the study’s more interesting findings, as well as the goal behind TSYS’ research.
“Our objectives of the study were to not only understand how consumers pay today, and how maybe those payment behaviors have changed since last year when we did a similar report, but most importantly, we wanted to understand what might change in the future, and what issuers could consider doing to impact those changes,” Hartman explained. “There are a lot of exciting things going on in the payment industry right now, and we know many of those could impact how consumers pay.”
Among the most interesting findings of the study was that consumer awareness of alternative payments is high, and is growing rapidly compared to years past. While a significant portion of those surveyed expressed reservations at using services from non-traditional financial institutions, a much larger portion said they wouldn’t rule out using alternatives payments means.
“The awareness is definitely higher than it was last year, and in previous surveys that were done. There are a number of payment offerings that are already on the market today, that are made available by companies other than financial institutions. And, as those of us in the industry know, those are growing,” Hartman said.
Hartman stated that rewards, special offers and discounts are some of the features that can help financial institutions retain customers and prevent them from switching to alternative payments. She also cited security, and specifically rolling out EMV technology, as a draw to traditional accounts, but made it clear that alternative payments are rising in popularity.
“In this case, we did find a third of the customers said they weren’t sure they would want to get a payment device from anyone other than a financial institution,” she noted. “Of course, that leaves two-thirds that could be incented to do so. “
To hear more Hartman on alternative payments, consumer spending habits and more, listen to the full podcast below.
To read a transcript of the audio conversation, click here.
Sarah Hartman
Senior Director, Payment Solutions, TSYS
Sarah Hartman is Senior Director of Payment Solutions at TSYS, responsible for product and strategy for the consumer line of business as well as the current EMV/Chip U.S. migration. Ms. Hartman has over 20 years of payments industry experience. Prior to joining TSYS, Sarah held a number of leadership roles with a large consumer bank, where she had responsibility for payment products, deposit and lending products, ATMs and online banking and bill payment. Ms. Hartman has extensive product management, sales and marketing experience. She has a B.S. degree in Accounting from Miami University and an M.B.A from the University of Dayton.
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