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Have you thought about how you will get paid and pay your bills in the future – and pondered futuristic payment methods like sensor fingerprinting, facial recognition, retinal scanning and voice control? If so you're in good company, according to a new study showing that 80% of people report being interested in futuristic payment methods, including new currencies like bitcoin.
Viewpost, a secure B2B invoicing, payments, and cash management network, interviewed 1,000 U.S.-based consumers for this study, looking at how they feel about new payment technologies, finding that many are open to them. "Paper invoicing and checks are well on their way out in the consumer setting, and more businesses across the spectrum are beginning to follow suit with transactions among their trading partners," said Viewpost CEO Max Eliscu.
"But electronic invoicing and payments are just the beginning — the future of the payments industry is highly dependent on leveraging innovation like biometrics, data integration, and a growing variety of payment methods to securely drive more volume with visibility, speed, and simplicity," he said.
New technologies make the grade
When it comes to futuristic currencies and payment technologies people are excited about what is coming, and this is especially true when it comes to biometrics. Sensor fingerprinting was a winner; with 50% of Americans saying that within the next 10 years fingerprint-based technology will be one of the technologies they foresee using when it comes to authorizing payments and getting paid.
Facial recognition technology made the cut too, with 35% believing that it will be used within the next decade as well. And 32% indicated that they trust this technology.
Retinal Scanning and Voice Control were also part of the conversation, with 31% saying that retinal scanning is a feasible technology for authorizing payments. While 18% of people think they will be able to make payments using voice control technology by 2027.
Paper bills becoming old school
What about paper checks? Overall people were not excited when asked about traditional paper checks, with a third believing they will be obsolete within the next 5 years, while 83% believe it will take 20 years for them to be a thing of the past.
When it comes to bill payment, just 11% of people believe that companies will still be sending them paper bills in the future, and more than half (54%) see a future where companies will use automatic payment options to bill their customers. And 52% believe that mobile and app-based payments are part of the payment landscape in the future.
