Almost half of millennials just want cash for Christmas
One-fifth would put it towards groceries or rent.
Apparently, young Australians are a practical bunch. A new survey has found that 46% of millennials would be happy with money for Christmas this year. This is far more than those who said they'd like regular Christmas presents (32%) or experiences (23%).
The survey of 3,000 Australians was conducted by instant payments app Beem It, which has also launched a new way for those that prefer cash as a gift to receive it this Christmas. Beem It, a joint venture between CommBank, NAB and Westpac, is a free payments app that launched in May 2018. The app allows you to send instant payments to any Australian debit card no matter which bank they are from.
The new feature will allow Beem It users to send money via the payments function as a gift rather than a regular payment. This is currently automatic, but an update will be released mid-December to allow users to schedule a gift.
Beem It's survey revealed 45% of respondents would prefer to receive money through an instant app like Beem It while 48% are happy to receive cash. Only 7% of people preferred a bank transfer.
"With more Australians doing away with physical money and increasingly championing digital transfers, it's exciting for us to be able to launch this digital way to gift money in a fun, personalised way through the Beem It app," said Angela Clark, Beem It CEO.
The majority of millennial respondents (60%) said they preferred cash because it allowed them to choose their own gift. Almost one in five respondents would put a cash gift towards groceries or rent while the majority (34%) would spend it on clothes or beauty items.
This is the first of a number of new features Beem It has introduced this year. In October, it announced that users would be able to not only send instant payments to other debit cardholders but also to themselves. This was a highly requested feature from Beem It users. Another feature that was introduced, and which Clark confirmed to Finder was the second most requested feature from users, was the ability to schedule payments.
The new Beem It gifting feature is available as of today. To send a gift payment, open the Beem It app, select "pay" and then choose to pay as a gift.
