33% of Consumers Will Pay a Fee for Instant Access to Payouts

New data shows one-third of U.S. consumers are willing to pay to have faster access to disbursements that are paid to them. In fact, consumers received almost three times as many disbursements via instant payment in 2021 than in 2020, showing the desire for faster payments is growing.

As for where the most disbursements came from, although the share of the adult U.S. population receiving government disbursements decreased between 2020 and 2021, government disbursements are the type of disbursements consumers receive most often. 

Forty-seven percent of consumers received government disbursements in 2021, according to “The State Of Consumer Disbursements,” a PYMNTS and Ingo Money collaboration that surveyed 2,951 U.S. consumers. Government disbursements include government stimulus payments, property tax refunds and income tax credits. 

Get the report: The State Of Consumer Disbursements: Who Pays Consumers — And How Quickly 

The next most received types are income and earnings disbursements (received by 34% of consumers), investment account disbursements (32%) and product purchase-related disbursements (28%). 

Thirty-three percent of consumers — roughly 52 million individuals — are willing to pay a fee for instant access to disbursements. 

However, the share of consumers who would pay extra varies by the type of fee. Consumers are slightly more willing to pay a fixed fee for instant disbursement receipt as opposed to paying a fee that changes based on the disbursement’s value. Thirty-four percent of consumers would be willing to pay an added, fixed fee for instant disbursement receipt, and 32% would be willing to pay a proportional fee that functions as a percentage of the disbursement value. 

Consumers’ willingness to pay extra for instant disbursements also varies depending on the type of organization from which they receive those disbursements. The disbursement use cases they are most interested in paying a fee for are insurance and borrowing disbursements (cited by 51% of consumers), other disbursements (50%) and income and earnings disbursements (49%). 

Government disbursement recipients are the least likely to be willing to pay an added fee for instant payments, with 32% willing to do so. 

The growing appetite for instant disbursements presents a massive opportunity for organizations to provide these recipients with the instant disbursement options they crave.