Almost One In Four Shoppers Say E-Payments More Secure Than Cards, Cash

As shoppers consider new ways of making payments, there are dueling emotions at play. First, there’s the excitement and fun associated with something new and flashy. But there’s also the fear of the unknown, especially when it could potentially touch a shopper’s bank account or permit huge fraudulent charges. Consumer fears are not always rational, but they still are real and must be dealt with. Understanding those fears is crucial.

A security company and a market research firm on Monday (Aug. 25) released a survey exploring global payment fears. The most interesting finding was that 23 percent of global users said that the “most secure way to pay” was using any form electronic money, including BitCoins and PayPal. Noteworthy is that the digital embrace is fairly constant across multiple age groups. It’s 24 percent for shoppers 16-24, 25 percent for shoppers 25-34 as well as for those 35-44. For the age group 45+, it does drop, but only to 20 percent.

The favorite response of the global audience was that the safest route was to just use cash. That was the choice of 54 percent of both the 24-34 and the 35-44 age groups and 55 percent of the 45+ group. The cash love was slightly higher for the 16-24 group at 61 percent, but it’s unclear how much of that were 16-17 year-olds who often cannot get plastic and alternative payment methods.

The survey of 11,135 shoppers was truly global, with the U.S. representing the second largest group of participants (1,010), outdone only by Russia’s 1,019 participants. China was third with 1,001 participants and every other country (23 countries were included) delivered fewer than 500 participants. The online survey was conducted May-June 2014.

The report found that people who live in China and the emerging markets trust online payments the least.