Consumers Sick of Scattered Payments Credentials — and They Want Banks to Help

Six in 10 consumers use stored payment credentials for subscription payments and shopping online. Even though some consumers painstakingly enter their payment information every time they submit a payment, there is a clear need for the convenience a payment credentials vault would offer.

More than half of consumers shopping online who regularly pay using stored payment credentials say they would use a secure credentials vault for most or all of these transactions. We found that 46% of consumers who used stored credentials for most of their subscription payments or when shopping online are highly interested in using a payment credentials vault. Furthermore, 51% of these consumers say they would use a vault for most or all of their transactions.

“Consumer Interest in Credentials Vaults: Traditional FIs Fight Digital Alternatives for Consumer Trust” examines consumers’ experience with stored credentials, which companies are best positioned to offer credentials vaults and which features consumers consider the most crucial.

Some key findings from the report include:

• Consumers trust the providers they transact online with most to provide a credentials vault — their bank, PayPal and Amazon.

While consumers were most likely to say they would trust their primary financial institution (FI) to run a vault service, trust in tech companies such as PayPal or Amazon to provide vault services has increased since September 2022. We found that 49% of consumers would trust PayPal as a vault provider in January 2023, up from 40% in September 2022, and 43% would trust Amazon, up from 37%.

• More robust data protection and better checkout experiences are why consumers want to make payments using credentials vaults.

Payment credentials vaults promise convenience features, like only having to update payment information in one place or even accessing automatic payment information updates. Still, consumers are much more interested in more robust data protection and better checkout experiences these services can provide. For example, we found that 60% of consumers overall say faster payment processing would be very or extremely influential on their decision to use a vault, and more than two-thirds of consumers interested in having FinTech and non-FI administer vaults cite fast checkouts as a key feature influencing their interest in a vault.

• Currently, just 2 in 10 consumers would switch to shopping with online merchants that accept payments from a credentials vault, indicating a need for vault providers to educate consumers.

While many consumers would trust their bank to provide credentials vault services, just 14% would be very or extremely likely to switch to merchants who accept payments from credentials vaults. Among consumers who say they would trust FinTechs or non-FIs to provide a vault, 33% would switch to merchants that link to a vault service.

However, given the low number of overall consumers who would consider shopping online with a merchant that uses a credentials vault, vault providers must educate consumers and offer secure options they can trust.

To learn more about what providers must know about consumer sentiment on using vault services for storing credentials and payment information, download the report.