Technology has made it so much easier to achieve many of our daily responsibilities and tasks. A great example of this is internet banking.

We’ve all been there- standing in long queues at the bank, wasting our lunch breaks or our Saturday mornings to run banking errands. With the arrival of Internet Banking, however, that seems to have become a thing of the past for many South Africans.

These days, online banking is used to perform both transactional (e.g. bill payments) and non-transactional (e.g. online statements) tasks, thus giving customers more control over the management of their finances.

Cell phone banking has majorly increased in the past year, as South African consumers gain confidence in their handheld devices as a tool for both communications and efficiency.

Although internet banking is beginning to represent a significant share of the banking market in South Africa (as the digital divide shrinks and more people gain access to online facilities), security concerns are still frequent amongst many users- especially those that may be using online banking for the very first time.

Among urban cell phone users, 44% now use cell phone banking services, compared to 27% a year earlier, according to the Mobility 2011 research project conducted by World Wide Worx and backed by First National Bank. In smaller centres and towns, 27% now use cell phone banking, suggesting that rural areas lag urban users by about a year in take-up of these services. In total, 37% of South Africans in urban and rural areas aged 16 and above now use cell phone banking.

Usage of cell phone banking peaks in the 26-34 age group, at 41%, and drops to 11% in the over-45 group. Male usage far outpaces that of females, at 56% against 44%. While education is a factor in usage of cell phone banking, with 43% of cell phone banking users having matric, and 38% with post-matric qualifications, the biggest proportion of cell phone banking users – no less than 27% – earn less than a R1000 a month.

The vast majority of cell phone banking customers still use the basic services, such as balance enquiries (78%) and notifications (58%).

However, transactional services are for the first time major components of cell phone banking services, with half of respondents buying airtime, 24% paying accounts, and 17% transferring funds between accounts. Emerging Mobile commerce transactions such as purchases and sending money to another persons’ cell phone are also appearing on the radar screen for the first time. 12% of cell phone banking users also sending money to other individuals, and 11% making a purchase via their cell phone.

[Source: worldwideworx]