Paycheck-to-Paycheck Consumers Drive Bundled Banking, Connected Economy

It may be the paycheck-to-paycheck consumers who wind up at the vanguard as the Connected Economy takes shape, with bundled banking highly valued and sought after.

The report “Bundled Banking Products: Matching Product Offerings With Customer Demand,” done in collaboration between PYMNTS and Amount, shows that consumers across all demographics and range of tech-savviness, want banks to provide a connected, holistic view of their daily finances.

Read here: 3 Things to Know About Maximizing Bundled Banking

As the data show, across nearly 3,000 respondents nearly half of consumers prefer having all their accounts with one bank and 71% of those who want a single provider cite the ease and convenience of bundling accounts as what drives this preference.

The preference cuts across pretty much all income levels … and the higher up the income ladder, the more products are on hand being utilized by consumers. The more service/products being used, the more consumers want to see those offerings “bundled” within the bank. Forty-one percent of consumers earning more than $100,000 annually have six or more products at their primary banks. But PYMNTS data shows that 38% of consumers with one to three banking products also want everything bundled at their primary banks.

Wide Familiarity

Thus, there’s a wide familiarity — with some real greenfield opportunity in the mix — with what banks can do for their individual clients.

Drill down a bit, 42% of consumers who live paycheck to paycheck without difficulty and 59% of those who are P2P with difficulty are at least somewhat likely to be interested in bundled services. Drill down even more, and 34% of the P2P consumers who are making ends meet (just making ends meet!) say they would be very interested in those bundlings.

The numbers tell us that the stresses of the macro-economic environment are priming some of the most vulnerable consumers among us to find new avenues by which they can ease some of those stresses.  And they are turning to some of the more traditional, and trusted providers — namely, the FIs — to do so. The data show, too, that the overwhelming majority of all respondents are focused using credit cards, debit cards checking and savings within that connected continuum.

If a majority of P2P individuals find value in bundled banking, then it stands to reason that a majority of U.S. consumers find value in bundled banking, too — since, as we’ve noted in other research, as many as 6 in 10 consumers fall under that umbrella.

There are wide implications for the connected economy, of course. In studies we’ve conducted across the globe, mobile banking remains among the most widely-embraced activities, with nearly 60% of consumers in 11 countries using devices to do their banking. The more actively the banks craft and promote bundled services to their users, who are showing evidence they want those options — the stickier and mutually beneficial the relationships become.