The study finds that consumers act faster on text, favor simpler payment experiences when obligations are similar, and abandon payment journeys that are too complex.
DALLAS, TX — September 30, 2026 — Sixty-seven percent of U.S. consumers expect to go from a payment reminder to a completed payment in three steps or fewer, according to The Competition for Consumer Payments, new research from Datos Insights sponsored by SBT. When the process demands more, payments stall: 36% of consumers have delayed a payment because it was too complicated.
The survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers shows how quickly that friction compounds. Nearly half (45%) of complexity-driven delays became missed deadlines, and seven in ten consumers (71%) within that segment have missed a payment more than once for the same reason. The intent to pay was there. The process lost it.
“Consumers are telling us exactly where their patience runs out: three steps,” said David Baxter, Chief Executive Officer of SBT. “Most payment journeys ask for far more than that, and every extra website, login, or account lookup is a chance for a willing payer to walk away.”
Key findings
• Payment is a competition. Forty-one percent of consumers experienced financial hardship in the past year. When they cannot pay every bill, they prioritize, and creditors compete for their place in line.
• Friction hits younger consumers hardest. Sixty-two percent of Gen Z and 56% of younger millennials have delayed a payment because the process was too complicated, the same groups reporting the highest rates of hardship and collections debt.
• Every handoff costs payments. One in four consumers (25.5%) has delayed a payment because they had to switch to a different app to pay.
• Text moves consumers to pay faster. Text drives more same-day payments than email for six of seven obligation types, including student loans (43% vs. 23%), auto loans (41% vs. 25%), and credit cards (34% vs. 24%).
• The reminder can become the payment. Forty-seven percent of consumers would be more likely to pay immediately if payment were embedded in the reminder itself.
• Ease wins the tiebreaker. Given two otherwise identical bills, consumers are twice as likely to pay the creditor that lets them pay by replying to a text (53%) as the one requiring a website login (26%).
“Consumers who delay a payment because the process is too complicated are not unwilling to pay. The process stopped them,” said David Albertazzi, Executive Advisor for Retail Banking and Payments at Datos Insights. “Consumers are willing to pay, but they’re less willing to jump through unnecessary hoops to do it. Step count, login failures, and channel handoffs are conversion metrics, and organizations should measure them the way e-commerce teams measure checkout abandonment.”
“Financial institutions have historically competed for customers on products, pricing, and terms,” Baxter said. “But when consumers are managing multiple obligations, the payment experience influences which bill gets paid first. If the path to payment is complex, a creditor risks losing priority to one that makes it simpler to act.”
The full Datos Insights report, The Competition for Consumer Payments: How Payment Experience Influences Consumer Choice and Payment Priority, is available here.
About the Research
Datos Insights surveyed 2,000 U.S. consumers online in Q2 2026, each responsible for paying at least one credit card, auto loan, mortgage or HELOC, student loan, or personal loan. The sample is proportioned to the U.S. population, with a margin of error of ±2 percentage points at 95% confidence. The research was sponsored by SBT.
About SBT
SBT helps businesses in regulated industries turn consumer intent into completed action. Its FinText® platform unifies messaging, embedded payments, compliance governance, and performance intelligence into a single experience designed for high stakes interactions. The result is faster payments, stronger self-service performance, and consumer journeys that stay inside a governed workflow from first contact to final confirmation. Founded in 2008, SBT serves lenders, servicers, collections organizations, and other businesses where engagement and revenue realization depend on trusted, compliant communication. Learn more at solutionsbytext.com. Follow SBT on LinkedIn.
