• Nearly 70 percent of consumers already use apps to operate their bank account, according to research commissioned by the UOKiK.
• Most respondents are satisfied with the performance of financial apps and are not concerned about security issues.
• Problems with this type of apps were experienced by 9 per cent of users, the most common being lack of access and customer service.

Financial apps enable various types of financial operations through smartphones and other mobile devices. They are increasingly popular, especially among the young.  This is confirmed by the results of social surveys* conducted on behalf of the UOKiK.

- The development of financial applications is beneficial to consumers, as it makes accessing services easier and saves valuable time. However, it requires caution and paying attention to security issues in order not to fall victim to cybercriminals says Tomasz Chróstny, President of UOKiK.

Banking operations and payment for purchases

According to the PBS poll, already 68 percent of consumers use banking apps to operate their account. The youngest people use them much more often (in the 15-29 age group it is 77%). Poles use other programmes of this type less frequently, for example:

• applications for online financial operations (e.g. paypall, skrill) - 27 percent,
• applications for transactions in specific shops (e.g. lidl pay, orlen pay) - 18 percent,
• virtual purses (e.g. revolut, curve, googlepay, applepay) - 14 percent,
• applications for payments on the go (e.g. Uber, Bolt, skycash, autopay) - 12 percent.

On the other hand, still almost one in four people (23 percent) do not use any financial app. In the 60+ group, it is 37 percent.

Poles most often use financial apps linked to their financial services, e.g. to conduct banking operations and pay for products and services.

The main motivation for using financial apps is ease of use and convenience (68 percent). Nearly half of respondents (49 percent) use them because they are linked to another financial product, such as a foreign currency account. There was also a situation where the respondent claimed that the bank forced him to set up such an application.

- We're glad to see that consumers are converting to using secure financial apps. However, it is unacceptable that they are required to use basic functionalities or avoid fees if the client, when concluding an agreement with a bank, did not agree to that - says the President of UOKiK Tomasz Chróstny.

A few months ago, the President of the Office intervened when mBank announced that in the new commission schedule, the necessary condition for exemption from card fees will be logging in to the mobile application at least once a month. According to the UOKiK, a bank should not, however, impose on consumers conditions that require them to incur additional expenses (e.g. to purchase an appropriate mobile device), which can be particularly burdensome for older adults with lower digital skills. After we spoke up, mBank withdrew from this solution.

Problems with financial applications

The PBS survey found that most people who use financial apps are satisfied with them. As many as 88 percent say they are useful for making payments or other financial operations. Most respondents are also not concerned about security issues, but this is not complete confidence. Only 18 percent of respondents strongly agree with the statement that "financial applications guarantee the security of personal and banking data", or rather agree - 45 percent.

As many as 91 percent of the surveyed users of financial applications say they have never had problems with them. Those who encountered them mentioned primarily technical issues: lack of access and customer service problems. 26 percent of the reports were related to security, such as an attempted account hacking or money extortion. 

How to use the app safely?

• Use original apps from your bank or well-known companies downloaded directly from the Google Play or Apple Store.
• Keep your software - whether it's apps, your device's operating system or antivirus - up to date.
• Secure your app usage with a unique, unrepeatable password, fingerprint or facial recognition system (i.e. biometrically, if the device and app have this feature).
• Do not give your financial application login information to anyone, under any circumstances.
• Set daily limits for transfers, online payments, etc. - this will minimize potential financial losses.
• Provide your data only to trusted entities.
• Use financial applications in a safe environment.
• If someone has stolen your app login details or has illegally made a duplicate SIM card and made unauthorized transactions, notify your bank and the police as soon as possible. Also change the app passwords.

*The PBS survey for the UOKik was conducted on the CAWI "poznaj.to" online panel from October 21 to 28, 2020 on a sample of 1,003 individuals over the age of 15.

Konsument.edu.pl portal

Are you curious how easy it is to fall victim to online financial fraud? The UOKiK in cooperation with the ProPublika Foundation has created a modern educational tool - a social networking simulator where the user can experience 10 threats, including account or identity theft.

The appearance of the website, its content, mechanisms and interactions used are identical to those found on the web. Therefore, the user behaves naturally - e.g. watches a commercial, reads posts on the wall, chooses the goods he wants to buy and the payment method. This provides a realistic, yet safe, demonstration of how cyber frauds operate. Each "trap" is also followed by a short video explaining the fraud's mechanism, a summary of the topic, and a knowledge test.

Go to konsument.edu.pl and see how to avoid traps set by cyber frauds in a safe environment.

More about the project

Consumer assistance:

Tel. 801 440 220 or 22 290 89 16 – consumer hotline
E-mail: [SCODE]cG9yYWR5QGRsYWtvbnN1bWVudG93LnBs[ECODE]
Consumer advocates – in your town or district

Additional information for the media:

UOKiK Press Office
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warszawa, Poland
Phone +48 695 902 088, +48 22 55 60 246
E-mail: [SCODE]Yml1cm9wcmFzb3dlQHVva2lrLmdvdi5wbA==[ECODE]
Twitter: @UOKiKgovPL