Over the whole Bank Holiday period1, nearly £2.5m was sent straight to someone’s bank account using a mobile number. Transactions hit a peak on Friday, with 17,244 payments, which is almost 40% higher than usual.

Use of the service usually increases on the last Friday of the month, as it is payday for many people. On this occasion the end of month payday boost appears to have been bolstered by the Bank Holiday weekend. According to research also published today2, chipping in for petrol money is currently the most popular reason to use it (21% of Paym users) - helping to fuel Bank Holiday trips away, as well as car sharing for those on the way to work.

Paym will also have helped with other forms of socialising over the long weekend - almost one in five (19%) users say they have paid back for cinema, theatre or gig tickets with the service, while almost the same number (18%) use it to pay their share for lunch or dinner. Another growing use for Paym is to pay a small business - one in seven (15%) people who use Paym have paid in this way, up from 13% when asked the same question in 2015.

£245m SENT SINCE LAUNCH
According to new figures published today as part of the latest half-yearly Paym statistical update, almost £100m (£99,218,404) was sent using Paym in the first six months of 2016. In excess of £245m has been sent from when Paym launched in April 2014 until the end of June 2016, with 3.3m mobile numbers currently registered with their bank or building society to receive payments.

The continued growth in Paym payments is being influenced by the increasing popularity of mobile banking. Figures recently published by Payments UK3 show that a third of adults in the UK now regularly use a mobile banking app. Seventeen banks and building societies, representing more than 95% of current accounts, offer the Paym service through their app making it possible to pay without knowing the recipient’s/payee’s sort code and account number.

Craig Tillotson, Executive Chairman of Paym, said:
“Paym is a great way to pay back friends and family, so it makes sense that the Bank Holiday broke the record for the number of payments sent to a mobile number. We normally see an end of month payday boost - we think settling up for the extra socialising and trips away created by the long weekend played a big part in breaking the record.”