US Payments Observations Pt 95
Two countries divided by payments...?
Long time followers of our blogs will know that Zil & I have written many times about our payments experiences around the world. As self-confessed payment geeks, it’s fascinating for us to see those differences that many others won’t see. As the tongue-in-cheek title suggests, these have often been focussed on the US. For the UK at least, visiting the US feels very familiar. It’s not just all the things we see on TV, but of course the common language.
Yet some observers may feel that other markets look somewhat down on the US. Many of those not in the industry feel that the US lags the rest of the world in payments by a good 10 years. At face value, that may feel true, but hides a more important observation. Payments have developed to serve the needs of a particular market over many, many decades. They are deeply embedded into everything everyone does – change is not easy. But more fundamentally, many payments are made by habit. Ask yourself, how often have you changed how you pay? I haven’t changed how I pay my utility bills in more than 25 years. I’ve used my prime credit card for over 30 years. And I’m a payments geek! Getting anyone to change is not only about lower cost and improvements, but getting the first experience right, and making it sticky.
This then is the lens for the observations from my latest trip.