30% of U.S. smartphone owners will use Apple Pay and Google Wallet during the holidays (study)

A new research report paints a bullish picture of the popularity of mobile payments this holiday season.

According to Ann Arbor, Mich.-based dynamic credit card firm Stratos and its research partner AYTM, nearly a third of American smartphone users plan to use mobile payments over the holidays. Seventeen percent of the people surveyed said they thought they’d spend more because they were using mobile payments.

The big questions are when they will use mobile payments, and where. Stratos says smartphone users wanted to use platforms like Apple Pay and Google Wallet in these locations for the holidays:

• Department stores: 66 percent
• Discount retailers/super stores: 48 percent
• Coffee shops: 43 percent
• Fast food: 42 percent
• Toy stores: 41 percent
• Drug stores: 35 percent
• Hotel: 28 percent
• Restaurant: 28 percent
• Bars: 26 percent
• Boutiques: 23 percent

Interestingly, however, a clear majority (69 percent) of smartphone users said they weren’t sure which stores would actually accept the type of mobile payments they use.

The thing people said most when asked what they liked about mobile payments is summed up in this respondent quote:  “I don’t have to worry about getting my credit or debit cards stolen.” More than a third of respondents said that or something like it.

Thirty-two percent of people said “I can track my spending more easily electronically,” while 31 percent said, “Phone pay is not appealing – I would rather pay by payment card.”

This survey was conducted online among 400 smartphone owners ages 24 – 50 on Nov. 11. The respondents were chosen from a database of over 20 million potential participants, Stratos says.

“It is clear that people are interested in mobile payments, but it doesn’t mean they’re going to abandon their cards,” Stratus CEO Thiago Olson said in a statement.

“Our research shows that while American smartphone users would like to use their smartphones to pay for gifts at department stores, they are less likely to want to use the same system to pay at a hotel, upscale restaurant, or a bar,” Olson said.

Stratos is a startup working on a dynamic credit card that puts a user’s credit, debit, and loyalty cards onto a single Bluetooth-enabled card.