Mobile payments: Bigger than cash in 2015?

Mobile payments and other alternate payments could amount to $2.7 trillion in transactions by 2015, according to Intuit study. That would make mobile payments easily twice as popular as cash.

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George Nikitin/AP/File
US Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis (left) and Intuit CEO Brad Smith use one of Intuit's mobile services that allows small businesses to take payments on a mobile phone in this file photo from April taken in Mountain View, Calif. Intuit says mobile payments make up about 5 percent of purchase transactions but will far outstrip cash by 2015.

We just can’t give enough love to mobile payments as we watch the world move from cash to credit to cardless. Intuit is feeling the evolution too and created an infographic to explain just how much mobile payments are growing and where they’ll be in 2015.

The two biggest payment players last year were obviously credit and debit cards, with a small, but rising mobile payments only making up 5 percent of purchases executed. But important to note is that as credit, debit and other forms of payment increase, cash exchange decreases. People have long trusted plastic to deliver their currency, so why not trade in the plastic for airwaves? Well, according to Intuit, people will do just that. Cash is expected to drop to just over $1 trillion changing hands in 2015, and alternate payments jumping up considerably to $2.7 trillion, hugely surpassing cash as a trusted method of payment.

Also important to keep in mind is the proliferation of smartphones themselves. Smartphones have permeated over 40 percent of mobile users, but more interesting is the fact that this is mirrored in business owners. 37 percent of entrepreneurs also work through the smartphone, creating a level playing field for people wanting to buy and sell over the phone.

Today, only one in four people are willing to whip out their iPhone or Android to buy goods. What’s to blame? Security concerns top the charts at 64 percent, but an underlying reason is that 46 percent of people just see their phones as devices to call or e-mail people. Perhaps people have not yet adopted the device as a utilitarian device, and instead use it only for its base functions, and perhaps entertainment.

See the infographic for more information on the evolution of the mobile payment:

See also:

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