Abstract:
The aim of this paper is to examine which payment instruments Canadians use for paying bills and to assess the factors driving their bill payment behaviour. I use 2019 survey data collected among over 4,000 Canadians and estimate a set of binomial and multinomial regressions to assess the factors influencing consumers' use and perception of different bill payment options. I find that there is no single dominant payment method for all consumer groups: demographics, financial situation, new technology adoption and POS payment habits play a significant role in the usage of bill payment methods as well as in consumers' stated reasons and barriers of use. Moreover, I demonstrate that consumers' bill payment behaviour strongly varies by bill type. The conclusions are useful for policy discussions on how to encourage a migration away from paper-based payment methods and how to (re)design a retail payments system to accommodate end-user needs.