Millennials And The Adoption Of Third-Party Payment Apps

Millennials may not understand the difference between a bank and a credit union, but when it comes to third-party payment apps, they know their stuff.

Individuals ages 18-to-34 are a technology-first, convenience-driven generation. Being able to access anything at any time is important for millennials. That’s why they prefer mobile for everything? including banking.

According to a FICO report, 80% of millennials do most of their banking activities online and through mobile apps. Through bank and credit union apps anyone can check account balances, deposit checks, pay bills, and transfer money between accounts, all from their phone.

Millennials still aren’t satisfied.

Third-party payment apps like Venmo and Square Cashallow users to make real-time mobile payments without fees, making them instantly popular with young adults.

Pay Pal-owned Venmo is particularly popular, as displayed by its dramatic 126% payment volume increase over the span of one year. Not only has Venmo made it possible to immediately transfer money from one account to another (though not withdraw), it has created a social media aspect to a payment method.

As 22-year-old DePauw University graduate Sheinnera Gerongay says, “It’s more social. You can put a funny tag on your payment whereas a bank app is more serious.”

I’m not the biggest believer in Venmo but sometimes boredom takes over and I find myself scrolling through my Venmo feed to see which of my friends transferred money to whom and the entertaining sayings attached to the transactions.

Aside from that, Venmo is convenient and available. Says Nathalia Melo, a graduate student at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, “It’s an easy fix when I forget my card or I pay for someone, instead of an ‘I owe you’ and then the person never pays you back.”

Personally, I don’t love Venmo or other apps of its kind. I use them because it’s easy and because everyone else does. As skeptical as I am of the security and social nature of the app, I prefer Venmo over using cash. I hardly ever carry cash with me anymore and I can’t pay a friend back for late-night Wendy’s runs with my debit card.

Why Is This Important For Credit Unions?

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