The digital disbursement landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by escalating consumer demand for speed and convenience. This report provides an essential, data-driven look at the evolution of digital disbursements, drawing on seven years of consumer data. It pinpoints the strongest drivers of preference for receiving funds instantly and explores the impact of instant receipt on consumer satisfaction. For industry professionals, understanding these dynamics is crucial for shaping strategies around payout methods, fee structures and the overall consumer experience in the rapidly accelerating world of digital finance.
Key Findings from The State of Digital Disbursements
Here are seven key findings from the report, highlighting critical trends and consumer behaviors in digital disbursements:
Accelerating Uptake, Stable Preference
While consumers’ underlying preference for instant payments has remained consistently high, the actual usage of instant methods has increased dramatically over the past seven years.
Consumers in January 2025 are three times as likely (37%) to use instant most often to receive disbursements compared to 2018 (11%). Preference for instant remained stable, with 79% of consumers in January 2025 stating they would most prefer to receive disbursements immediately.
Speed Demanded by Frequent and High-Value Recipients
The need for speed in receiving funds is most pronounced among consumers who receive disbursements frequently or in high dollar amounts, particularly for payment types like loans and income.
Ninety-seven percent of consumers who have received 25 or more disbursements in the past year most prefer to receive them instantly.
Push to Debit Leads Preferred Destinations
Push to debit has emerged as the top preferred destination for consumers receiving instant payments, demonstrating a strong link to both a preference for instant methods and consumer satisfaction.
Eighty-nine percent of consumers who most prefer push to debit as a destination also prefer instant the most. Push to card and bank account destinations are linked to the highest satisfaction levels.
Choice Is the Tipping Point for Instant Adoption
Giving consumers control over how they receive their disbursements acts as a significant catalyst, dramatically increasing the probability they will choose to receive funds instantly.
When choice of how to receive is provided, the probability of choosing instant triples. Every additional opportunity to choose increases the number of instant disbursements by 77%.
Preference for Instant Correlates With Willingness to Pay
Consumers who have a strong preference for receiving funds instantly are significantly more likely to be willing to pay a fee for that immediacy, and this willingness increases with the frequency of disbursements received.
Consumers who most prefer to receive instantly are six times more likely to be willing to pay a fee for instant. Nearly 2 in 3 consumers who prefer instant the most were willing to pay a fee in January 2025. Seven in 10 of those receiving 25 or more disbursements annually would be willing to pay a fee for instant.
Use Case Impacts Demand and Willingness to Pay
The specific type of disbursement received influences both the desire for instant payment and the willingness to incur a fee, with income, earnings and investments showing a strong dynamic.
Some 37% of consumers receiving $500-$1,000 in income and earnings disbursements are willing to pay a fee to receive them instantly. The amount-use case dynamic is strongest for income and investments compared to lending and insurance.
Choice and Instant Use Drive High Satisfaction
Providing consumers with the choice of receiving instantly and allowing them to utilize that option leads to a significantly higher level of satisfaction with the disbursement method used.
Some 94% of consumers who were given the choice of instant and used it most often reported being highly satisfied. This group is 17% more likely to be highly satisfied than those who did not have choice and did not use instant.
Methodology
The findings presented in this PYMNTS Intelligence report are based on a comprehensive analysis of 10 waves of consumer survey data, encompassing more than 42,000 respondents surveyed between 2018 and 2025. The study employed linear and logistic regression models to identify key drivers of consumer adoption and preference for instant disbursements, as well as factors influencing satisfaction with the receiving method used. The analysis considered variables such as the number, type and average amount of disbursements received, whether consumers had a choice in receiving methods, their preferred destination for funds, demographic information like generation and income group and the survey wave. Results are reported as predicted conditional probabilities, indicating the likelihood of a consumer behavior (e.g., preferring instant) given specific factors, holding other variables at their average values.
