In the past few years, the development of technology has dramatically changed the way many people pay for what they want. Let us ask a question: How much less likely are you to withdraw cash to pay for something today?
For most people out there, digital payments have replaced traditional cash payments. Nowadays, alternative payment methods like digital wallets, cryptocurrencies, prepaid cards and more have become very popular. In addition to that, most businesses have started accepting cashless payments or credit card payments to support their customers. In this article, we will analyse the most popular alternative payment methods in a bit more detail.
Cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies are one of the most popular trends in the world in recent years. Although these currencies are losing popularity due to their volatility, many industries around the world are using them as a means of payment. Companies which mainly focus on digital sales are particularly interested to implement as much payment methods as possible. This approach allow the to attract broader audiences and ensure that user experience will meet any needs. More specifically, this situation is very often seen on real money online gambling sites.
If someone wants to understand the power of cryptocurrencies, we can only say a few things. First of all, more than 18,000 companies worldwide accept cryptocurrencies as a means of payment. In addition, the global market of all cryptocurrencies is around $1.28 trillion as of May 2022.
Of course, for most people, the only cryptos they know are Bitcoin and Ethereum. However, there are more than 10,000 different cryptocurrencies active. It is easy to understand why the world of cryptocurrencies can hope that their popularity and power will continue to grow.
Digital wallets
Another very popular alternative payment method nowadays are digital wallets. The most famous eWallets such as PayPal, Alipay, Yandex and others have recorded a very large number of payments through their services in the last few years.
The popularity of these digital wallets has increased a lot, as they are not only easy to pay, but also offer a very high level of security. It is no coincidence that today more than 900 million people own a digital wallet and use it as their main payment method.
Mobile wallets
How many people in the world do not know about mobile wallets? Certainly, there are not many. To be more precise, more than 25% of the world’s POS payments have been made via mobile wallets in 2021.
Apple Pay, Venmo, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay are just some of the most popular mobile wallets that you can find out there. Mobile wallets offer their users the ability to make contactless, cashless payments at any shop they like. In addition, this payment method is proven to be one of the fastest ways that a person can use to pay for something. With all that in mind, the number of people using mobile wallets as a means of payment has risen up to 1.5 billion in recent years.
Prepaid cards
Prepaid cards have also become one of the most common payment methods in the past few years. It is estimated that this method is used by more than 20 million people around the world. Prepaid cards can be used to buy just about anything, whether in person or online. In addition, many prepaid cards can also be used at ATMs to withdraw cash.
One of the reasons prepaid cards have become very popular in the past few years is also the nature of gift cards. A gift prepaid card is a card that can be used in certain stores and is one of the most common gifts nowadays.
In addition, there are also the payroll cards that are used by companies that want to transfer the salary amount of their employees to these cards. With this type of card, the employee can buy what he wants and also pay bills and services.
Bank transfers
With this payment method, customers can pay for what they want to buy with an authorised payment from their bank account. This payment method is becoming more and more popular. To be more precise, it is expected that more than 40% of customers will buy items using instant bank transfer in the upcoming years. Some of the most popular technologies that have enabled this method are IDEAL, Sofort, Trustly and others.
Why these alternative payment methods have become so popular
For many years, the only thing people knew as a payment method was cash. But with the evolution of technology, that has changed a lot. Those alternative payment methods that we talked about above have come to make payments a very simple and fast process.
Given the security that most of the alternative methods offer to their users, it is easy to understand why they have become so famous. Moreover, the contactless and cashless system is the key to why most people are using these payment methods more and more.
What is coming in the future
Well, nobody knows what the future will bring when it comes to means of payment. But the steady rise of digital payments in recent years is perhaps the strongest indication.
Today, debit and credit cards and cash are still the most common methods in the world when it comes to buying something. However, we can see everywhere that many people have started using or thinking about alternative payment methods. If we add the fact that more and more companies and stores are accepting alternative payment methods, we have a better view of what will happen in the next few years.
