BERLIN, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Only 6 percent of German consumers preferred paying with smartphones, according to a survey by Strategy& of PwC published on Tuesday.
German consumers were "cautious" about the possibilities of mobile payment. A large majority of 61 percent prefer to use cash to make payments while 33 percent of Germans favored debit and credit cards.
According to the survey, the reluctance of German consumers to use smartphones as a payment method was "noteworthy". More than three in four German consumers were "not interested at all" in paying with smartphones.
While banks across Europe had been enabling customers to make account data available to third-party service providers in order to trigger payments, "consumers in Germany remain hesitant," the survey found.
Reasons for the low acceptance of mobile payment among German consumers were the lack shops accepting non-cash payments, easier track keeping of expenses and convenience when paying quickly with notes and coins, according to the survey.
The survey also found that only 14 percent of Germans were willing to share data with banks or third-party providers.
"German consumers are not yet aware of the practical added value of the new data sovereignty offered by open banking," said Andreas Pratz, partner at Strategy& Germany. Banks and FinTechs still had a "lot of convincing to do and have to develop attractive services for their customers."
The problem of data protection was a central issue for German consumers, PwC Strategy& found. About 59 percent of Germans surveyed did not want to provide personal data in exchange for more attractive services.
