A New Generation of Payments – How payment methods differ across generations

It can be hard to keep track of all the new payment methods which seem to keep popping up. Over
the past few years, there’s been a growing interest in contactless, wearable and mobile payments as
well as the significant hype around cryptocurrencies. But different demographics each have their own
take on how they view and how they’ve adopted these new ways to pay.

Sainsbury’s Bank recently examined the financial habits of three generations; the Baby Boomers,
Generation Xers and millennial generation in the UK. The preferred methods of payments varied by age group but there is an evident decline in cash payments across all three with 23% of millennial generation carrying less than £5
in their wallets at any given time. Indeed, current estimates suggest that debit card payments will
overtake cash by 2025 and it’s likely that by then the majority of these payments will be electronic.

Our recent blog post discussed the growing market and benefits of mobile payments in the UK, yet Sainsbury’s found that only 30% of people across all three generations are happy to make contactless payments using their phone. As we discussed, this figure would likely increase if trusted banking apps offered mobile payments.

So what does the future hold for payment methods? With Millennials being a generation of digital
natives and as a new generation, Generation Z comes of age, we can expect that electronic
payments will soon reign supreme. However, more needs to be done to increase trust around
emerging payment options.

Check out the visual below for more details on the findings of Sainsbury’s Bank:

Our mission at MeaWallet is to help our clients simplify mobile payments and support implementation. Our team is passionate about the subject and continually looking at the evolution and trends in the mobile payments space. We welcome your comments or invite you to get in touch directly with us at contact@meawallet.com