Many Americans no longer need to visit their local bank several times a month.
Online banking is often easier and more efficient than visiting a teller, and mobile banking is even becoming fairly common.
A survey of 3,000 people conducted in August by Fiserv found that one in four online homes had used a mobile banking in the past month. A mobile browser constituted the most common method of mobile banking access (60 percent), following by a downloadable application (41 percent) and text messaging (32 percent).
Consumers also are using mobile banking for more sophisticated purposes such as to transfer money and make a payment. The Fiserv Consumer Trends Survey found that 40 percent of mobile banking users paid a bill using their mobile phone, up from 28 percent in 2010. Meanwhile, 32 percent of respondents used their wireless phone to transfer money, and that figure compares to 25 percent in 2010.
Many consumers who own tablet computers or expect to purchase such a device are interested in banking via their tablets, with 45 percent of those individuals expressing an interest in using their device for banking, according to Fiserve. When consumers were asked which banking services they would like to use through the tablet, the leading selection was viewing of monthly statements (69 percent), followed by paying bills (56 percent), viewing real-time account information (50 percent) and transferring money between accounts at the same financial institution (49 percent).
