Dan Moore, head of Strategy, Analysis and Engagement explores key findings from the latest research into consumer perspectives on payments. He reflects on our work to continually improve the payments landscape.

A central part of the PSR’s role is to ensure that payment systems work in a way that takes account of and promotes the interests of users. This includes consumers – the people who use payments as a key part of their daily life. We emphasised the importance of the consumer perspective in our recent Strategy update – highlighting our clear focus on delivering improved outcomes for consumers. This remains critically important as we move to become part of the Financial Conduct Authority, which has a vital role in helping consumers – as emphasised in the FCA 2025-30 Strategy.

We therefore set out to dig deeper into how consumers understand and use payments. What influences their choices, how do they behave in different situations, and what do they really need from payment systems? Answering these questions is a vital part of our regulatory approach; it helps us to focus and support a payments landscape that fosters competition, drives innovation, and enables growth.

We commissioned Thinks Insight & Strategy to carry out in-depth research to uncover these insights, including through focus groups – helping us to better understand consumer thinking – including differences in view between different consumer groups.

What we found

  • Consumers’ payment behaviours are guided by context and rooted in habit. People are generally comfortable using a range of payment types, and their choices are often instinctive.
  • Consumers are largely satisfied with payment systems and the vast majority feel that payments are working well. 95% of consumers agree that payment systems in the UK are working well. 92% say that they can make and receive payments in a timely manner, and 87% feel their money is secure when they make payments in the UK.
  • On the other hand, a substantial number expressed concern in specific areas. Fraud remains a major area of concern – with 41% worried about the possibility of fraud - and 39% experiencing limited choice in payments. Fraud worries are a particular concern amongst more financially constrained consumers.
  • Consumers are confident about prioritising different needs for different payments. We presented people with various scenarios to understand their payment system preferences and needs.
    • Ease of use is consumers’ top priority for lower value payment types. This is closely followed by speed. At 38%, cash is the payment type consumers are most likely to say they ‘prefer’ for lower value, in-person items – but we found that they may be less likely to use cash in practice. When combining digital methods, 59% of consumers preferred payment method is either debit card, credit card or mobile wallet.
    • Protection and security are the top priorities for higher value payments. 42% of consumers prefer credit cards for higher value items. Consumer awareness of additional protections for credit card payments is high, and people feel they offer more protection when something goes wrong – albeit their details of how protections work is more limited.
    • For recurring payments, reliability is key. 74% of consumers prefer to use direct debits or standing orders for their utility bills. About two-thirds prefer to use it for rent or mortgages and entertainment subscriptions.
  • Contactless card payments remain the most frequently used payment type. Younger consumers are significantly more likely to use mobile wallets regularly; almost half of 18–24-year-olds use them daily, compared with less than 10% of people over 55. A third of customers say they use contactless more than they did last year, because they are convenient, and they trust them more than they did.
  • When consumers hear about the PSR’s recently introduced app fraud reimbursement policy the majority are positive and feel reassured that a protection like this exists. Some also feel it would help to incentivise financial institutions to do more to crack down on fraud.

Looking to the future

While consumers in general are broadly satisfied with the state of payments, there are also important areas for improvement – including keeping a strong focus on fraud, which has been a big PSR priority. We recently updated on the progress of our recent reimbursement rules to help address authorised push payment fraud, including case studies from real consumers to show their impact.

Greater choice, and technology and infrastructure changes, are also important to enhance consumers’ payments experience.

We also need to ensure we understand changes in behaviour – that is why our recent joint work with the FCA on digital wallets has been so important.

Being clear that there also no such thing as a single consumer view is essential – significant differences in view and experience exist – and understanding these helps us to focus what we do.

Maintaining a strong understanding of consumer behaviours and preferences – and how they differ across consumer groups – is essential in ensuring our regulatory approach reflects people’s real-world experiences. This will remain a key focus as we transition to become part of the FCA and continue to drive growth, foster innovation, and promote effective competition in the payments sector – so that UK payments deliver for all of its users.

You can read more insights and the full, detailed report on our website, along with the survey questions.