More people have turned to the internet for financial transactions and making payments for goods and services, according to the result of a survey by Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, or Suan Dusit Poll.
The poll was conducted online on 1,047 people throughout the country from Nov 29 to Dec 2.
Of the respondents, 87.11% had transferred money, bought goods and made payments on the internet. Only 12.89% had never used the internet for these purposes.
When those who never used the internet to make payments were asked why -- with each respondent allowed to give more than one answer -- 71.85% said they felt it was more convenient to pay with cash; 57.04% did not know how to use the internet for that purpose; 35.56% feared being cheated; 31.85% had no apps for the payments; and 11.85% did not use a smart phone or had no internet access.
When those who had used the internet to make payments were asked why they did so, 93.51% said it was convenient; 81.52% said it helped reduce use of cash, thus reducing Covid-19 infection risks; 48.73% said their account balances were clearly displayed; 44.44% said they had to adjust to change; and 40.92% said the transactions were free of service fees.
Asked what they had made payments for on the internet, 78.88% cited goods; 76.46% utilities such as water, electricity and the internet; 73.16% transferring money; 66.01% food; and 42.13% mortgage and car instalment payments.
Asked what problems they had encountered while making payments on the internet, 64.68% cited system failures; 47.98% different systems used by different banks; 43.82% said they often spent more money than planned; 27.40% had their system hacked for personal data; and 22.43% said they sometimes made mistakes when making payments or transfers.
Asked about their current use of the internet for payments, compared to before the Covid-19 pandemic, 80.81% said they made more payments on the internet, 17.32% said they made the same use of the internet as before, and 1.87% said they made fewer payments than before.
Asked to what degree they felt safe making payments via the internet, 60.65% were fairly confident, 17.29% had little confidence, 15.47% were very confident and 6.59% were not confident at all.