Pay to Use Your Banking App? Most Say ‘No Thanks’

SNL Financial surveyed mobile banking app users nationwide as to whether they would be inclined to pay for the service; more than three quarters (76 percent) said no.

The financial information firm’s Mobile Money survey, conducted in February, asked a random sample of 4,371 smartphone bank app users throughout the United States if they would pay $3 per month to continue using the app. Beyond the overall disinclination that the survey bore out, the respondent data was further broken down according to age, gender, income and location.

Among the banks with a minimum sample size of 75 mobile bank app users, Bank of America customers responded at the highest average — 33 percent — that they would be willing to pay for their app. For JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo mobile banking app users, the positive responses matched the national average of 24 percent.

By region, respondents in the New York City area and near the Pacific Ocean are the most amenable to the notion of paying $3 per month to keep using their mobile bank app, at 28 percent and 26 percent, respectively. Mobile banking app users in New England represented the lowest percentage of positive response, at only 16.6 percent.

According to the survey, older millennials (aged 26-35) are the most willing to pay to use a bank app at 32 percent, followed by Gen X (36-47) at 25 percent, then younger millennials (18-25) at 23 percent. The age demographics least interested in the idea are seniors and baby boomers.

By income bracket, the two groups with the highest percentage of negative response stand at two different poles: the super-rich and those with low income. The upper-middle income bracket ($75,000 – $149,999) is the most willing to pay, at 30 percent positive response.

By gender, males appear more open than females to the idea of paying $3 a month to use their mobile banking app, at 27 percent to 21 percent.

Any way you slice it, the SNL Financial survey certainly shows that the ‘nos’ have it when it comes to the notion of paying for a mobile banking app. If banks eventually want to start monetizing that feature, it looks like they’re going to have to come up with a wider range of more appealing ideas.