The pandemic transformed the life of the entire population in general not only in health, work or school measures: the financial habits of Mexicans also changed in the last 12 months.
From the increase in online purchases, using electronic means of payment, reinforcing the culture of savings and the importance of having insurance, are some of the changes that Mexican families learned and acquired in the last year as part of their financial practices.
This evolution in the behavior of the pockets of Mexicans is not only reflected in traditional institutions, fintech companies have also detected this transition in recent months due to the health contingency.
Executives from different companies, as well as studies on the matter, reveal that Mexicans are slowly beginning to migrate to digital media, promoting a culture of prevention as well as changes in ant spending.
Francisco Rodríguez, Chief Growth Officer of the fintech Albo, indicated that one of the main changes was registered in the way consumers pay their fixed expenses, where many users went from cash to online payments.
Similarly, a part of consumers migrated to digital services, for this, many opened online accounts, either debit or savings accounts. For the executive, this implies a change in financial practices by going from traditional processes to doing it digitally.
And he added: “The pandemic accentuated the use of digital platforms, getting used to not bringing cash, the habit of buying online. The contingency forced the majority of the population to switch to fintech companies to pay for their basic services ”.
Changes in savings
According to Rodríguez, by spending more time at home, many users changed their ant expenses and redirected them to buying food at home, while many families began to save due to the loss of jobs or the reduction of wages.
On the subject of savings, the Albo executive stressed that more households began to give more importance to this practice and began to create an emergency fund to face any eventuality.
“Yes we detect an increase in savings but it is not substantial, in addition to making a little storage and being prepared for any emergency, it is a bit the effect of the confinement,” he explained.
Asked whether these habits will remain in the long term, the Albo executive specified that many of these behaviors could remain, but it will be a matter of discipline and continuity. “We do not know if the return to the old normality will be as we knew it and many of these changes remain as part of the practices of the users, but the services that benefit as consumers can continue to be adopted,” he said.
They hire more insurance
The contracting of insurance during these months also began to gain more relevance within Mexican households. David Cabrera, director of operations of the insurtech Woow detailed that the medical and life expenses policies were the ones that were contracted the most, the above, seeing that this type of insurance does work as a backup in case of an emergency.
According to internal data of the insurer; Millennials and centennials were the segments of the population who most acquired this type of policy, who are beginning to become aware of the importance of having this type of protection. “The population begins to be more aware of having a prevention education, mainly the new generations,” he said.
And they also change payment methods
According to the 10th Report on Trends in Payment Methods, carried out by the company Minsait Payments, 56.9% of Mexicans reduced or abandoned the use of cash as a payment method and have migrated to digital payment methods.
Although the use of cards continues as the preferred means of purchases, 56.5% of users started using contactless payments.
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