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"Most consumers willing to adopt mobile payments"

Mumbai: Majority of consumers in the country are ready to move away from cash and adopt mobile payments for their purchases, says a report.

Consumers also believe that relying on mobile payments could be a time-saver, according to the ’Visa Mobile Payments Readiness Survey’.

"When it comes to paying in a store, the majority of consumers in the country are prepared to leave their cash at home and use mobile payments," it said.

The survey asked 1,000 consumers about their attitudes towards using their mobile phones to make purchases. It found that 93 per cent of respondents were interested in using electronic payments more often.

"Cashless payments are faster and more convenient than using notes and coins," Visa Group Country Manager (India and South) T R Ramachandran said.

In the last quarter, Visa saw nearly 75 per cent increase in payments volume in the country and the number of processed transactions more than doubled.

"It is important that we maintain this cashless momentum and the strong interest to use mobile payments represents an opportunity to convert cash-carrying consumers over to electronic payments," Ramachandran said.

Nearly 89 per cent of the respondents were also aware that mobile payments can be used for small value everyday purchases.

Around 90 per cent of the respondents said using electronic payments to make most of their daily purchases would mean spending less time at an ATM.

"More than a third (36 per cent) of respondents said they can save an hour each week if they did not have to queue at an ATM to withdraw cash while one quarter (25 per cent) feel they can save more than two hours," the survey said.

Asked whether convenience or security was a more important consideration when it comes to mobile payments, 71 per cent of the respondents cited security as a higher priority for them.

Interestingly, men (73 per cent) are more likely than women (68 per cent) to rate security over convenience.