The chequebook and passbook have taken a back seat in the financial lives of many Canadians, as people continue to embrace online banking to streamline and simplify their everyday banking habits.
According to the 2011 TD Canada Trust Everyday Banking Poll, Canadians selected online banking as the most preferred method of paying bills (65%), followed by preauthorized debits (16%), branch banking (8%), telephone banking (5%), at an ATM (3%) and by cheque in the mail (2%). In fact, Canadians say the most significant change in banking habits over the past five years has been adopting online banking (46%), followed by paperless recordkeeping (12%) and viewing statements electronically (10%). Three-quarters of Canadians (76%) now use online banking to pay their bills.
"Anytime and anywhere, Canadians are increasingly turning to online banking for its convenience, security and ability to simplify how they manage their everyday finances," says Raymond Chun, Senior Vice President, TD Canada Trust. "Online banking gives Canadians access to banking information whenever they need it—and they can also use a tablet or smartphone to check account balances, pay bills and make transfers."
However, there is still an opportunity for Canadians to take advantage of other banking services that will help make saving and managing finances even easier. According to the poll, only 8% use mobile banking.
The TD Canada Trust Everyday Banking Poll also found that 18-to-34 year old Canadians are the most likely to use a mobile app for banking (19% versus 8% overall), for activities such as: checking account balances (18% versus 7% overall), making transfers (10% versus 4% overall) and paying bills (8% versus 4% overall). The majority of Canadians who don't use mobile banking say it's because they don't have a smartphone (66%) or they perceive it to be unsafe (14%) or too expensive (12%).
"Mobile banking is still in its infancy, but its popularity has grown exponentially as more and more Canadians switch to smartphones," says Raymond. "As an example, within a year of its launch, more than 1 million Canadians downloaded the TD mobile app, making it the most downloaded banking app in the country."