Generational Gap Closes as P2P Digital Payments Usage Up Among Older Cohorts

Usage of digital peer-to-peer (P2P) payment services like PayPal’s Venmo, Square’s Cash App, Apple’s ApplePay, Google’s Google Pay Send and Early Warning LLC’s Zelle is up among members of all generations as US consumers get more accustomed to the services, a study from Early Warning has found.

Three in four millennials, 69 percent of Gen Xers and 51 percent of Baby Boomers use online mobile P2P apps, the survey found. Forty-nine percent of Millennials, 42 percent of Gen Xers and 32 percent of Baby Boomers reported weekly usage.

In a February study by Mercator Advisory Group, 25 percent of young adults reported weekly usage and half of all American consumers reported monthly usage, so the latest data from Zelle suggests an uptick in interest and usage among American consumers. Last year, a Bank of America survey found that close to half of Boomers, Gen Xers and Millennials who did not use P2P apps expected to use them by the end of 2017.

According to Early Warning LLC’s data, trust was a major factor in decision-making for P2P services. For older generations – particularly Baby Boomers – trust in traditional banking services providers was a major consideration. Seventy percent of Boomers said they used a P2P service because it was offered by their bank, compared to 49 percent of Gen Xers and 35 percent of Millennials. For the younger consumers, trust in P2P services established through recommendations from family and friends was the top reason for trying the services. Two-thirds of Gen Xers and 68 percent of Millennials identified recommendations as their primary reason for trying the services, the study found.

As expected, security is also a top concern across all generations. Baby Boomers ranked it first on a list of most thirteen important features, while Gen Xers and Millennials ranked them third and fifth respectively.

According to a release from Early Warning LLC, the study was administered online in April 2018 to a panel of 9,229 consumers aged 18-65 who were aware of P2P, owned a smartphone, sent or received money by any means, used an online or mobile banking in the past six months, and had a high school degree or higher.