Weekday money management is the fastest growing use of mobile payments according to new figures released this week by Paym.
Statistics covering the first half of 2015 reveal that weekdays accounted for almost three quarters (73.7%) of Paym payments. This is a marked increase from the previous six months, when weekdays only accounted for just over two out of three payments (68.6%).
More than three quarters of a million payments (774,628) were sent in the first half of 2015 – an increase of 80% compared to the previous six months. In total, more than 1.25m payments worth £70 million have now been sent since the service launched in April 2014.
The new analysis from Paym finds that people are increasingly using the service to pay back immediate family for money owed for petrol (25%), bills (22%) and household costs (19%) – an interesting change from January 2015 when mobile-to-mobile payments were mainly being used to settle up for socialising.
Six months ago they were using it to buy sandwiches and to go the movies.
As of the end of June 2015, 2.6million people have registered for Paym with one of the 17 participating banks and building societies, which cover more than nine out of ten current accounts. There has also been a slight shift in the age of people who are registered – 35-64 year olds now account for 39% of registrations, up from 35% in January 2015.
Craig Tillotson, Managing Director of Paym, said:“Paym continues to grow and it’s interesting to see we’re using it more for weekday money management as well as Saturday’s socialising. We believe the sheer simplicity of using someone’s mobile number to pay them back means Paym will go from strength to strength. After all – whether it’s a friend or a family member – we already know their mobile number, so it’s easy to settle up with no sort code, no account number and no cash.”