Speedpay Pulse Report: Consumer Insights Shaping Smarter Billing Strategies (ACI Worldwide)

Summary

• Handling inbound calls to customer service centers can cost billers between $25 to $50 an hour.p.4
• Biller websites remain the most popular channel used by 60.6% of consumers for monthly bill payments over the last 12 months.p.5
• A total of 51% of consumers report they would stop doing business with a provider that does not offer digital wallet options.p.6
• An overwhelming 89.2% of consumers prefer engaging with a live human over an AI-powered solution to resolve bill payment issues.p.7
• For 22.3% of identity theft victims, the resulting financial losses ranged between $1,000 and $5,000.p.8
• Instant, real-time, or fast payments are cited by 75% of industry professionals as the most influential payments technology in 2025.p.9

Key insights

1. Approximately 3 in 10 consumers reported making urgent or same-day bill payments in the past 12 months.p.3
2. Gen Z and Millennials are willing to pay a small fee for faster payments, with 38% of Gen Z and 41% of Millennials considering it.p.4
3. Instant payments helped 93% of financial institutions improve customer retention according to research by PYMNTS Intelligence and The Clearing House.p.4
4. Nearly half of smartphone owners currently use a mobile wallet to make payments.p.5
5. Millennials display the highest positivity toward AI at 46.5%, whereas 43.6% of Boomers view AI negatively.p.7
6. More than half of identity theft victims suffered financial losses between $100 and $1,000.p.8
7. Mobile payments and AI/machine learning are identified as key influential technologies in 2025 by 56% and 45% of payments industry respondents, respectively.p.9