According to a new study, 33 percent of the people with accounts with that institution are willing to pay a fee.
The results of a study conducted by research company SNL Financial have now been released and they have shown that it is the customers of the Bank of America that are most willing to pay an additional monthly fee in order to have access to mobile banking features.
This shows that there are some customers who would be willing to pay to use a mobile app from their lenders.
The research took into account the responses of customers from nine large banks across the United States. Among its questions was whether or not the respondents would be willing to pay a monthly fee of $3 in order to be able to continue the use of their mobile banking apps. Among the customers from the Bank of America, 33 percent said that they would be willing to pay the additional fee to use the smartphone app from their bank. That was the highest percentage of any of the bank customers that were surveyed. In second place was Citigroup, from which 31 percent said that they would be willing to pay that same fee.
The report did not suggest why that specific bank’s customers were more willing to pay for mobile banking.
In terms of the other seven banks that were involved in this mobile apps study, the percentage of customers who said that they would be willing to pay an additional $3 per month in order to use the application were as follows:
• 29 percent – U.S. Bank
• 26 percent – TD Bank
• 25 percent – USAA
• 24 percent – Wells Fargo
• 24 percent – Chase Bank
• 22 percent – PNC Bank
• 18 percent – Capital One
This could be some very useful insight for banks, which are currently facing an ongoing time of low interest rates and which have been facing a struggle in finding ways to boost their revenues and ensure their growing profitability. Equally, banks have been observing a growth in the number of their consumers that have been embracing mobile banking features.
The results of recent research show that a notable percentage of smartphone users use the device to conduct financial transactions.
A recent survey conducted by a financial analytics firm called RateWatch has shown that while a very small percentage of bank customers consider mobile banking to be their main option, accessing an account via smartphone is highly popular nonetheless.
Among the survey participants, 62 percent considered their primary option to be banking in person at the branch.
The 4th Annual Mobile Banking Survey revealed that while people may not think of their mobile devices as their main method of banking, there is still a considerable number of them who actually use those devices for that purpose. Bain & Co., a global management consultancy, conducted a survey that showed that 35 percent of customers worldwide were using their smartphones in order to complete certain bank transactions. That research involved the responses from approximately 83,000 bank account owners.
The popularity of mobile banking is reflected in the changes that many banks are making to cater to the devices.
Chase Bank, for example, was one of the early entrants into the world of apps and services over mobile devices. This financial institution not only created applications that could be used by customers in order to complete transactions with their bank, but it also advertised it quite heavily through various different kinds of ads. That bank currently has over 18 million mobile customers, according to the figures cited by Gavin Michael, the Chase Bank head of digital.
Michael explained that the use of smartphones to complete these transactions is “redefining how we think about banking”. This same attitude appears to be shared by the entire banking industry, at the moment. The survey from RateWatch suggested that from 2011 to 2014, the percentage of banking institutions that started to offer services over mobile devices doubled from having been 41 percent to become 82 percent.
Mobile banking has faced a number of hurdles along the way – and continues to do so. At the same time that its convenience has made it increasingly popular among some consumers, there are many who are highly resistant to using it due to concerns with regards to the security of their devices and the safety of their private and sensitive data.
