2 minutes
Mobile and card tools encourage daily engagement with finances.
Picture the stereotypical millennial. What comes to mind?
Are you seeing a 20-something who still lives in his parents’ house, plays video games all day and (if he has graduated from college) has mounds of student debt? Maybe he’s texting his friends that his dream job just won’t open up, and he can’t believe no one will loan him the money for a car while he tries to invent the next killer app.
Surprise! In reality, millennials are the largest generation in the work force, and recent studies of financial habits show they are excelling in one major area—saving money.
Millennials, as a whole, have become better than past generations in saving money and initiating savings earlier on in their careers. Millennials are also beginning retirement pans, investing and have overall more positive spending behaviors than previous generations.
These behaviors may be a result of a common theme for this generation to put off bigger purchases to pursue life-enriching experiences. It was more common for their parents’ generation to graduate from college and get married in their 20s, and then buy a house for their growing family.
Millennials are instead saving their money for trips of a lifetime and checking off items on their bucket lists before they settle down, whether that is marriage or a family or both.
The Role of Mobile and Card Apps
One factor helping millennials and their savvy saving habits may be a stronger understanding of where their money is going with the availability of personal finance applications and mobile banking tools. Today, almost a third of millennials check their balances daily, with more than half doing so via mobile apps.
Mobile banking applications also have enabled millennials to move money from checking to savings, manage bill payment, monitor their credit scores and investments, and utilize a centralized accessible location to get an overview of their finances.
One of the fastest-growing tools used by millennials is mobile-based card controls. Available through either the mobile banking platform or a standalone application provided by their credit unions, members are given a remote control for their credit and debit cards that allows switching the card on/off; setting location controls, spend controls and transaction alerts in real time via push notifications every time the card is used; and tying purchases with information available on the phone.
CUs are well positioned to help millennials and other generations be good savers who can reach their life goals.
Gary Singh is VP/marketing at Ondot Systems Inc., a financial technology company that puts personalized control of credit and debit cards in the hands of the consumers to prevent fraud and decide when, where and how their cards are used.
Also on CUES Skybox blog, read “Prepaid Cards Mitigate Millennial Angst.”
CUES' Payments University will be held Aug. 13-14 in Denver.
