Thursday 03 November 2016 10:29 am

Mobile pay is still waiting for its “Uber moment” (even among millennials)

Despite our addiction to smartphones, using them to pay for a new winter coat or that morning coffee has yet to become commonplace – even among tech obsessed digital natives, aka millennials.

Just a quarter of those aged between 18 and 35 are using mobile pay and only two per cent are using Apple Pay, the most high profile mobile pay service which had been expected to kickstart the cashless revolution when it launched last year.

The latest figures come from Vocalink, which surveyed millenials across Europe about their payment habits, concluding that the sector is still waiting for that "Uber moment".

"At this moment in time, it would seem millennials are still following their parent’s lead when it comes to making payments, using methods that they know and trust," said the payment provider's director of marketing and customer insight Cara O'Nions.

"So while attitudinally millennials may be game-changers, the research shows that more conservative behaviours are evident when it comes to making payments."

And while Apple and other tech companies are largely at the forefront of mobile pay development, the majority of millennials (58 per cent) would prefer their bank to be providing the service, it turns out.

"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," added O'Nions.

Most major banks in the UK have supported Apple Pay as well as the equivalent on Google's Android. However, Barclays has launched its own contactless pay app.