Out with the old, in with the new, as consumers warm to banking tech

With the Current Account Switch Service just weeks away, new research* from thinkmoney shows how the features we look for in an account are changing.

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For example, cheques - once a key part of accounts everywhere - look like they're on the way out, considered important by just 3% of the under-25s questioned.

Very much on the way in, online banking turned out to be the number-one 'sought-after feature', with 80% of respondents seeing it as vital.

Interestingly, there appears to be very little difference between age groups when it comes to online banking. In fact, ages 65+ seem even more likely to want online banking than ages 18-24 (79% compared with just 76% respectively).

Another increasingly popular feature is mobile banking, which now ranks alongside telephone banking in terms of desirability (each was seen as important by 14% of respondents). Here, age does make a difference: 27% of people aged 18-24 think mobile banking is an important feature on a current account, whereas only 3% of ages 65+ agree.

The situation with cheques is almost the reverse: just 3% of 18-24 year-olds think cheques are an important feature when looking for a current account, compared with 37% of ages 65+.

When it comes to overdrafts, less than a third of people (27%) consider this an important feature of a current account, with ages 65+ the least likely to feel this way (19%).

"With advances in banking technology, it's no surprise that people are less concerned about 'older' features such as cheques," said Ian Williams of thinkmoney.

"The sheer convenience of making payments online and on the move really does overshadow some more dated methods of banking, and it's great to see that people of all ages are embracing this kind of technology".

* Consumer Intelligence research carried out a survey of a representative sample of 2,202 UK adults from 31st July - 05th August 2013. Figures have been extrapolated to fit ONS 2013 population projections of 50,371,000 UK adults.

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