Retail and digital media subscription firms beware, as these are the payments consumers are most likely to skip when in a pinch, although there are strategies and tools to lessen the chances of partial or skipped payments.
These are among the findings from The One-Stop Bill Pay Playbook, a PYMNTS and Mastercard collaboration, which surveyed 2,140 consumers about their bill pay behaviors, priorities, and preferences at a time when millions of households are being squeezed hard by inflation.
At a high level, the data shows that bill-payers tend to “prioritize bills for services they view as more essential. For example, PYMNTS’ latest consumer data shows that consumers are least likely to skip insurance and home internet payments and most likely to skip payments for retail products and digital media subscriptions.”
Specifically, the study states, “In the last 12 months, 40% of consumers made just a partial payment toward at least one bill and did so for an average of two providers. Our research also found that 27% completely skipped at least one bill payment, doing so for 1.8 providers, on average.”
Of those who made partial payments or found it necessary to skip paying a bill entirely, millennial and Generation Z consumers were most likely to have done so in the past year. Baby boomers and seniors were the least likely. Those living paycheck to paycheck were “much more likely to make partial payments or skip bills than those who do not live paycheck to paycheck.”
The antidote for this can be a streamlined and simplified one-stop bill pay experience. Per the study, “14% of bill-payers who prioritize at least one bill over others identified the ease of making payments as a key factor in that decision-making process. Notably, the valuable millennial segment is more likely than any other age group to place a high value on seamless payments experiences, with 23% of this cohort saying they will pay bills with the least payment friction first.”
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