New Data: Instant Loan Payouts Rise Thanks to Growing Lender Adoption

Download the Data Brief Generation Instant: Leveraging Instant Pay to Streamline Borrowing Disbursements

Borrowing connects consumers with funds they need to pay for major expenses or to manage debt. As a result, the timely receipt of these funds can be crucial. Instant payments can play a key role in this equation. Not only are more consumers turning to instant loan payouts, but many senders seem willing to offer them as well.

In fact, PYMNTS Intelligence data finds a notable uptick in instant usage for borrowing in the past year. Close to half of loan disbursements were received instantly as of January.

Among all loan types, consumers are the most likely to receive consumer loan payouts via instant methods. This type of loan has shown the biggest rise in instant usage, mostly due to an increase in the share of senders offering loan recipients instant payment options in the past year.

These are some of the insights explored in “Generation Instant: Leveraging Instant Pay to Streamline Borrowing Disbursements,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and Ingo Payments collaboration. This report is based on a census-balanced survey of 3,898 U.S. consumers conducted between Dec. 28 and Jan. 22, examining consumers’ growing interest in and satisfaction with instant payment methods when receiving disbursements from government and nongovernment entities.

Other findings from the report include:

Consumers receive borrowing disbursements instantly more than other disbursement types.

The use of instant payments to receive all types of disbursements has risen over the years, and loan payouts have followed a similar trend. Instant payment use increased the most for borrowing disbursements in the last year, with 44% received this way as of January — up from 34% last year.

Among the different types of borrowing, instant payment usage to receive consumer loans grew the most.

Compared to personal or debt consolidation loans, consumer loan payments saw the greatest increase in instant adoption since last year. As of January, 48% of borrowers received consumer loan disbursements via instant methods — a 15 percentage point increase from January 2023. Instant pay usage for personal loans and debt consolidation loans also rose year over year, but these were less dramatic.

More consumers are willing to pay a fee to receive consumer loans instantly than for other loan types.

Borrowers value consumer loan instant payouts options so much that they do not mind paying for it. In fact, 73% of consumers receiving consumer loan disbursements are highly willing to pay a fee to receive them instantly. While borrowers receiving other loan disbursements are less likely to pay a fee for instant disbursements, they remain very likely overall.

Many consumers consider instant payment options table stakes when receiving loan payouts. Lenders that do not have plans for offering instant payment options are putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage. Download the report to learn more about how consumers and lenders increasingly prefer instant borrowing disbursements.