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Consumers increasingly see the benefits of mobile payments for a variety of transactions, and their interest in mobile payments marks a significant growth area for several industries, according to a Deloitte survey.

Purchasing gasoline with a credit card at the pump: So 1995. Queuing up at a kiosk to pay for parking or public transportation: Even more antiquated. Technology has brought untold conveniences to consumers’ daily lives, but certain payment processes like those described remain hopelessly outdated.

It’s no wonder consumers ranked tedious activities like paying for gas, parking, and public transportation highest on a list of useful applications for mobile payments, according to the U.S. edition of Deloitte’s 2014 Global Mobile Consumer Survey.¹

U.S. survey results show consumers gradually warming to the idea of using their smartphones to pay for a variety of goods and services. “Many consumers are already comfortable using their smartphones for sensitive financial activities they’ve traditionally conducted on PCs, like checking bank account balances, making online purchases, and paying bills,” says Craig Wigginton, vice chairman and Telecommunications sector leader for Deloitte & Touche LLP. “Mobile payments represent the next frontier.”

Yet players in the financial services, retail, technology, and telecom industries that wish to promote mobile payments may have some work ahead of them, as significant numbers of consumers either hesitate to fully embrace the technology or are simply unaware of it. According to results from the U.S. edition of the survey, 54 percent of respondents said they would not use their phones to pay for items in stores, compared with 24 percent who would, and 23 percent who aren’t sure.

Consumer support for mobile payments, while growing, has not yet translated to widespread use for a variety of potential reasons: Consumers may worry about security; their phones may lack the near-field communication (NFC) technology that facilitates mobile payments; or if their phones are built with NFC, they may not realize it, according to Wigginton.

Indeed, half of respondents to the U.S. survey say they don’t know if their phone has NFC. But of the 11 percent of respondents whose phones feature the technology, 41 percent of that dedicated and growing group reported using it in the last month. Perhaps not surprisingly, use of mobile payments among consumers ages 18 to 34 outpaces usage among consumers in older age demographics.

“We expect awareness of NFC to improve concurrent with its growing penetration in the marketplace,” says Wigginton. “In the meantime, consumers clearly see the benefits of using mobile payments for a variety of transactions.”

With smartphone manufacturers increasingly building NFC into their devices, and rising numbers of retailers accepting mobile payments, Wigginton believes the payment mechanism represents a significant growth area. “Given the many uses for mobile payments, industry support for the technology, and consumers’ increasing reliance on their smartphones, adoption figures for mobile payments could be transformed by next year’s survey.”