(InvestigateTV) — A recent Forbes survey found that half of consumers use digital wallets more than traditional payments.
The survey showed that PayPal, Google Pay, and Apple Pay are the most popular of the phone-based payments methods.
Nathan Grant, a senior finance industry analyst with MoneyTips, said the major benefit of using a mobile wallet is the enhanced security.
“Mobile wallets in particular use what’s called tokenization, which replaces your actual card details, your card number, with a unique token that is for each transaction,” Grant explained. “So, the risk of fraud and identity theft is immediately cut back because if somehow that transaction was taken, it’s just for that one purchase. They can’t do anything with that number.”
Grant said a lot of banks also allow you to add your debit card to the mobile wallet which also provides your debit card number with that extra layer of security when making purchases.
“And I think a lot of people are often worried about the idea of storing their financial information on their phone. They think, ‘Oh, I don’t want to put it on here,’” Grant noted. “But the combination of that tokenization security check, as well as just the typical security checks from your phone that could be face scanning them, scanning passcodes and tends to get into your phone. That’s basically a double layer of security.”
Grant said convenience is also key. Digital wallets can store multiple payment methods, credit cards, debit cards, loyalty cards, and airline tickets on there.
He said the biggest negative is that not all retailers are set up for mobile pay and reminded users to always carry a backup payment method, just in case.
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