85.6% of Egyptians seek more efficient payments methods for their household bills, recent survey shows

The research was recently conducted by Ipsos Marketing Research for Fawry, a leading banking and payment technology services company in Egypt, as part of an assessment on the growing demand by Egyptians for advanced bill payment facilities that would eliminate the hassles of traditional bill payment methods that exist today.

Out of 400 Egyptian respondents from various social-economic backgrounds who were surveyed in Egypt (Cairo and Alexandria) and Saudi Arabia (Jeddah and Riyadh), 84% prefer to delegate someone to pay for their telephone, mobile, utilities, satellite and Internet bills due to long queues and crowds at bill payment points. The survey showed that sending someone to pay electricity bills (60.3%) and water bills (58.2%) was the preferred option as these were the most inconvenient for them to pay in person. Having someone come to the house to collect payments was the second option, although most respondents flagged that home privacy and personal security was a key deterrent to this method of payment.

Ashraf Sabry, Fawry CEO, said:

"The research clearly shows that existing channels of bill payment, although varied, still lack convenience and simplicity for Egyptians who tend to be overwhelmed with the large number of monthly, quarterly and annual bills within their households. This factor increases when there are multiple bills for the same service, like mobile phones, where several family members have their own mobile line."

Bill presentation by the service provider also showed a noted concern by respondents who rated fixed line, car registration ,driver's license renewal and club memberships as most inconvenient and most forgotten due to inconsistent or no bill presentment, requiring that they put reminders for themselves to remember to pay while having to make a significant effort to find out the amounts due, either through calls, by visiting billers' websites, or even making a physical trip to find out the value of outstand dues.

A majority of the respondents (94.5%) stated that they would like to see a service that allowed them to view, manage and pay all household bills from a single point of contact, while providing an annual record or history of paid bills and expected future bills.

"Respondents shared their views on a single, unified bill presentment and payment service that would allow them to manage and pay all their bills while receiving receipts for their payments," said Sabry. "85.6% stated that they are very likely to use such a service as it offers convenient accessibility to bill management and payment and should include the available channels in use today for bill payment which are via mobile phone, Internet portal, call center and automated IVR, and through the existing network of ATMs. A key desirability for such as service was that it should allow users to access their bills and pay them anytime, and from any location , offering complete peace of mind, flexibility and privacy."

"Our research additionally shows that Egyptians also want to see a simplified process for paying insurance bills generally across all types of cover, taking the pain out of this type of bill management and payment. The feedback by respondents to such a solution has been overwhelmingly positive and demonstrates Egyptians' desire for alternative bill payment methods that are efficient, secure and available to them through a single, convenient and easy to use interface," added Sabry.