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Business Breakfast with iCard – Do Digital Wallets Have a Future in Bulgaria?

Nadezhda Marinova 6 November, 2018
Business breakfast with iCard

On October 17th this year, iCard gathered friends, partners, and even competitors at a cozy business breakfast at an elite venue in Sofia.

I’m glad to say that some prominent representatives of the industry joined us such as, Stoilka Arsova from BORIKA, Todor Georgiev from FastPay, Daniela Bobeva from the Bulgarian Science Academy and many more. The event itself was covered by Bloomberg Bulgaria, Forbes Bulgaria, ComputerWorld.bg and others.

In this pleasant atmosphere, we discussed the results of an important representative survey iCard did a few months ago. We wanted to understand how people in Bulgaria feel about modern payment solutions such as the iCard digital wallet. We surveyed 400 people, age 18 to 65, all living in the cities and regularly using smartphones and the internet.

 

Cash or card?

 

If you’ve visited Bulgaria recently you probably noticed that this is a common question here as well. Our survey showed that the main preferred payment methods here are precisely those – with a debit card and in cash. Bank transfers, payments via online and mobile banking are also becoming more and more popular.

It is important to note that over 90% of people who regularly use debit cards, still pay more often with cash. Only 18% use their plastic more than 20 times a month, compared to 79% for those doing cash transactions.

 

Average consumer grade of phone payments

 

The daily amount of cash available to people is still relatively large – an average of 66BGN per day (~33 EUR).

It was extremely interesting for iCard as a business to understand how people respond to cashless and contactless payments. To our satisfaction, these methods are already used daily and most people perceive them as quick, comfortable and secure. Nearly 80% said they had made a contactless payment with a card for the past three months. On average, 12 such payments are made on a monthly basis.

 

Number of contactless payments with a debit card per month

 

Do people pay with their phones?

 

Of course, one of the things that we were most excited about was to learn what people think about their phone as a payment tool. I wouldn’t say that the results here were surprising, having in mind the novelty of the service on the Bulgarian market. Although all respondents use smart mobile devices regularly, only 11% of them have made a contactless payment with their phone in the last three months.

What we found to be a good indicator for the market potential is that people familiar with the method use their phone almost as frequently as they use their contactless cards – on average 9 payments per month.

Another finding we consider favorable is that people perceive paying with their phones as very safe, fast and convenient.

At iCard, we consider all that as a solid ground for the future development of mobile payments as a service. We also consider ourselves as a well-positioned brand with the great potential to preserve our leadership spot on the Bulgarian market.

 

Average consumer grade of phone payments

 

Another interesting fact is that people in Bulgaria have a very low understanding of what a digital wallet actually is. What I found most fascinating is that most of the people do not really make a difference between a digital wallet and mobile banking.

 

Do people still queue up?

 

It is curious to note that there is already a change in people’s attitudes towards the available ways to pay their utility bills. Many people still pay their bills on the spot, although, as it became clear from our survey, this is not the most preferred method among them.

The digital wallet iCard already provides a good alternative that allows billing to be paid directly through the application – quickly, easily and securely. Here it is appropriate to mention that the people inclined to make payments on the spot are those who have lower incomes, are aged under 29, and usually, live in smaller towns.

It is typical for women to mix billing methods, most likely according to convenience in a particular situation.

 

What’s next?

 

The Bulgarian consumer already uses a great variety of payment methods. There are many factors for choosing a financial product. What people value most is the security of payments, low maintenance fees and fast processing of the transactions.

We see a growing trend in using debit cards, as well as in choosing various other non-cash alternatives such as online and mobile banking, phone payments and online shopping. At iCard, we think that this trend will continue ascending, and soon the speed and convenience of non-cash operations will prevail over the habit of having paper money in our pocket.

In our opinion, phones will take on an increasing share of contactless payment methods in the near future. An important role in this will be to raise awareness among consumers about the benefits and, above all, the security of this method.

Having in mind that the security comes first when choosing a payment product, it can be concluded that cash is still king in Bulgaria and that we are still far from the world trend of “cashless society”.

The iCard digital wallet is a reliable payment alternative that not only makes your everyday life easier but also offers the highest level of protection similar to that of traditional banking institutions.

If you are not sure yet whether iCard is for you, you can check out all of our services listed here and decide on your own.

 

Haven’t installed iCard yet? Get it today!

31

Nadezhda Marinova

Marketing Director at iCard AD Nadezhda is an avid leader and an integral part of the iCard digital wallet business development. When not working on the latest strategy for our skyrocketing future, Nadezhda is enjoying quality time with her family, reading philosophy books and spending unforgettable moments outdoors.

More posts by Nadezhda Marinova

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_ym_dStores the date of the user's first site session
yandexuidUsed for identifying site users
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yabs-sidUntil the session endsSession ID
yp10 yearsSets a unique ID for the session. This allows the website to obtain data on visitor behaviour for statistical purposes.
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This helps us test that the changes we make to our site are actually making it better.
Statistical
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ajs_anonymous_id1 yearThese cookies are generally used for Analytics and help count how many people visit a certain site by tracking if you have visited before.
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_gid
1P_JAR
APISID
DV
HSID
NID
SAPISID
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UULE
__hssrcSessionWebsite usage statistics
__hstc2 yearsWebsite usage statistics
muc2 yearsUsed to facilitate Twitter functionality on our website and to:
- track user behaviour
- deliver and measure the performance of advertising
- enable sign-in
- personalise the Twitter experience across devices.
Statistical
ads_prefs
auth_token
csrf_same_site
csrf_same_site_set
dnt
eu_cn
external_referer
guest_id
kdt
personalization_id
remember_checked_on
tfw_exp
twid
act3 monthsYou have a Facebook account, these cookies will allow you to share content on the Inflectra site with your Facebook contacts. You will be also able to tell if you or your Facebook friends 'Liked' any content on the Inflectra site in the past. The cookies will also send some non personal data to Facebook to gather aggregate information on how people interact with websites that use the Like button.Statistical
c_user
datr
fr
locale
pl
presence
sb
spin
wd
xs