Canadians ready to use smartphones like credit cards: poll

Almost half of Canadians with smartphones would consider using their devices like credit cards to pay for everyday purchases, a poll released Friday suggests.

But 57 per cent said rewards for credit card purchases were important to them in deciding to use mobile payments, the CIBC poll said.

“Canadians are ready to start paying for everyday items using their mobile device, but they want all of the benefits and rewards they’ve come to expect from their credit card,” said CIBC’s David Williamson, head of retail and business banking.

CIBC and Rogers Communications Inc. launched mobile payments in Canada on Friday. Olympic gold medallist Simon Whitfield showcased the technology at a Tim Hortons outlet in downtown Toronto.

The poll found that 47 per cent of Canadians with smartphones would consider using them like credit cards.

But only two models of Research In Motion smartphones can be used like credit cards to pay for everyday items up to $50, Rogers said.

But there will be more BlackBerry smartphones as well as Android and Windows Phone 8 smartphones that will be able to make mobile payments, said David Robinson, vice-president of emerging business at Rogers.

Consumers will simply substitute their smartphones for their credit cards, Robinson said.

“People have embraced mp3 players on phones, video cameras on phones. My wallet is now in my phone. Weird now, but three years from now it will be normal,” he said.

“It’s going to be very merchant friendly, very consumer friendly,” he said.

Mobile payments can be made wherever Visa’s payWave, MasterCard’s PayPass and Interact Flash are accepted, Robinson said.

The CIBC poll also found that 36 per cent of those surveyed have used their smartphones for mobile banking, up from 25 per cent in 2011.

Smartphone use in Canada has also risen, with 44 per cent of Canadians surveyed owning a smartphone, up from 33 per cent in a similar poll conducted for CIBC in 2011.

Twenty-nine per cent of those surveyed said they can see their smartphone replacing their wallet or personal computer in the next few years.

Both younger and older generations were interested in using their smartphones to make mobile payments with 51 per cent of those surveyed between the ages of 25 and 34 saying they would consider it. In the 45-54 age group, 48 per cent of those surveyed said the same thing.

Results are based on a CIBC poll conducted by Harris/Decima via telephone between July 12 and 22 based on a sample of 889 smartphone users and has a national margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.