Only a quarter of UK millennials are using mobile payments technology, according to research from VocaLink, the latest in a long line of tech firms trying to figure out how young people want to pay.
The survey of more than 4000 18 to 35 year olds across four European countries suggests that while there is an appetite for innovation in the payments sector, millennials have yet to find an Uber or Snapchat equivalent - something which meets their needs and is a significant upgrade on existing tools.
More than half of the Germans quizzed have never used mobile payments, while in the UK just two per cent of respondents actively use Apple Pay despite the fact that 46% use iPhones. Around one in five European millennials who have attempted to use mobile payment technology have abandoned it.
Cara O'Nions, director, marketing and customer insights, VocaLink, says: "The millennial generation is quite rightly pushing the payments industry to drive high quality innovation, currently dissatisfied with what is available today."
In the UK, 58% of millennials would prefer to use a mobile payment service provided by their bank, followed by PayPal with 49%. This same trend is seen in The Netherlands but reversed in Germany and Italy, where PayPal tops the list of potential providers - a service that many millennials have grown up with and therefore see on par with their bank.
"It is particularly interesting to see that millennials would prefer to remain with traditional payment providers while they are waiting for advancements in the market, and if they were to consider mobile payments in the future, the majority would prefer that this was offered by their bank," says O'Nions.
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