Storing Payments Credentials Online Bothers Millennials More Than Gen X Shoppers

As consumers look to stored credentials to make their payment experiences easier, the majority are actually finding the capability comes with its own pain points.

For PYMNTS’ study “Payments And Credentials Vaults: Gauging Consumer Interest,” created in collaboration with FinTech company FIS, we surveyed a census-balanced panel of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers to understand their digital habits around with banking and finance.

The study found that, while the vast majority of consumers use at least one stored credential, most of those users have found that these payments are not all smooth sailing. In fact, 55% of those who store payment credentials reported having experienced friction that halted their payments at checkout — pain points such as expired or stolen cards.

While one might expect it to be primarily older consumers who may not be as familiar with technology to experience the lion’s share of these issues, instead the reverse more or less holds true. Indeed, baby boomers and seniors were the least likely of all to experience such pain points at checkout, with only 41% of these older consumers stating that they have faced these issues.

Conversely, 61% of Generation Z consumers — well above the population-wide average — reported having dealt with such payment challenges.

Most likely of all to have dealt with these problems, however, are millennials, with a whopping 70% of consumers in this group reporting that they have faced friction that halted their payments at the point of checkout, and 69% of bridge millennials (those 34 to 44 years old) said the same.

It seems, however, that this disparity comes down to how often consumers use stored credentials — those that use them the most, as stands to reason, are the most likely to eventually hit a snag.

“The most active stored credential users — millennials, high-income consumers and connected-tech consumers — are most likely to experience friction with their payment credentials,” the report observes.