According to a quick survey from ComScore, more Americans are starting to trust mobile banking from their smartphones. Smartphones and tablets are becoming the new PC’s and the portable units are getting more options when it comes to taking care of business on the go. Mobile banking is all part of that and a recent survey should that more Americans are getting comfortable that they can trust their banks to handle situations securely via mobile banking. According to the survey about 12.7 million mobile users in the United States have used their mobile device to check personal banking information. Those numbers come in only half of the way through 2011. It was a 45 percent overall increase from the same quarter in 2010.
Overall, the survey said that 32.3 million Americans have accessed mobile banking information from their tablets or smartphones in the 2nd quarter and that accounts for about 14 percent of all mobile users in the United States. Even though it could appear that more Americans are getting comfortable with banking securely, the actual increase in usage could be because more banks are seeing the mobile trends and simply offering more services. ComScore VP for marketing solutions, Sarah Lenart, made a statement that since banks are trying to go with the trends; they are spending more money on new apps and website upgrades that work better on mobile devices.
In the prepared statement, she says, “While mobile channels have not reached the same penetration that traditional online channels have for the use of financial services, it is interesting to note that mobile users access their credit card accounts on a more frequent basis. Digitally-savvy customers have begun to use mobile and other connected devices such as tablets to engage in online activities that once used to be limited to the computer and are doing so more frequently because of the portability and convenience offered by these devices. As users continue to incorporate the use of these devices into their everyday lives, financial services institutions can expect to see a more engaged audience grow from their mobile channels.”
To break it down a little more the survey said that about 19 million Americans access some sort of credit card information and about 6 million used a specific credit card app. Now that more people have smartphones, the odds these numbers continue to rise is pretty good.
