Yahoo Finance Common item big banks predict will disappear
As the way we pay for things changes, our personal items do too.
When was the last time you took your wallet out of the house with you? For many Aussies it’s no longer an important item to have.
In fact, the Australian Banking Association (ABA) found close to 40 per cent of Australians were leaving their home without their wallet or cards, relying on their phone or other devices instead.
In 2019, only 19 per cent of Aussies reported leaving their wallet at home.
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Younger people are leading the ‘digital wallet’ charge, with two-thirds of those aged 18 to 24 relying on their phone or wearable to make payments.
Unsurprisingly, the amount of people using cash to make payments is also dropping, with 20 per cent of all payments now made using PayID.
And one in two Australian smartphone users say they have used their mobile phone to make a purchase in-store, in-app or on a website, an increase from 18 per cent in 2019 to 49 per cent in 2022.
ABA chief executive officer Anna Bligh said changes in the way Australians did their banking were happening at breakneck speed.
“The transformation of the nation’s payments preferences is continuing at a rapid pace,” Bligh said.
Aussies ditching physical branches
While young people are taking up new payment technologies at the fastest rate, only 9 per cent of those aged 65 and over report leaving home without their wallets or cards.
As the mobile ‘branch in your hand’ trend grows, branch usage has declined, with 70 per cent of Australians reporting not having visited a branch in the past month.
However, branches continue to play an important role for those preferring face-to-face transactions or for complex transactions.
Just 4 per cent of Australians reported preferring to visit a branch to check account balances. The remainder use a mobile banking app (56 per cent), internet banking (31 per cent), phone banking (4 per cent) and online live chat (1 per cent).
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