Survey: 72% of Consumers Manage Lending Accounts Online

A recent PYMNTS collaboration with Mastercard company Finicity, titled “Account Opening and Loan Servicing in the Digital Environment,” found that 61 percent of consumers have loan accounts with outstanding balances and 72 percent of consumers manage their loan accounts online.

The most popular type of loan account is held by landowners and homebuyers; 33 percent of consumers have a mortgage account with an outstanding balance. Auto loans are also common, with 31 percent of consumers reporting having one. Other common types of loans are personal loans and student loans, reported by 16 percent and 14 percent of consumers respectively. 

Among the 61 percent of consumers who have outstanding loan balances, 51 percent manage payments digitally and are willing to share access to their financial data; 21 percent of consumers manage payments digitally but do not give access. 

Only 29 percent of consumers manage their loan accounts non-digitally, primarily because they worry about their personal data being stolen. 52 percent of consumers who use mobile apps and 51 percent who use web browsers said that is one of the main reasons they do not manage their accounts digitally.

Consumers also said they prefer to control payments with the bank’s bill pay system because they do not want any personal data online. Smaller shares of consumers said they do not manage accounts digitally because it’s too complicated, too hard to make payments, or they cannot pay as they prefer.