A guide to voice banking and voice-activated payments
Quick insights
- Voice banking includes voice-activated banking tasks like conducting transactions or accessing financial information.
- Voice payments require a virtual assistant, a linked payment method and a compatible, internet-connected device.
- Voice payments allow you to make quick, hands-free payments but could have drawbacks like misinterpreted commands and limited integration.
Voice banking can ease the banking process, enabling you to pay bills and perform other banking tasks without having to log into mobile apps or manually input information. This growing banking trend allows users to leverage emerging technology to streamline their finances.
As voice banking becomes more widespread, you may wonder if you should incorporate it into your banking practices. Here are some things to know about voice banking, including how to make voice payments and some pros and cons of this payment method.
What is voice banking?
Voice banking allows users to perform banking transactions and access financial services using voice commands. It relies on voice recognition technology to authenticate the user’s voice—their unique “voiceprint”—and natural language processing to interpret spoken commands.
Voice banking may be a helpful, hands-free method for conducting transactions, potentially benefiting people with disabilities and those who prefer multitasking among others. Beyond transactions, voice banking can provide quick access to financial information, such as account balances or bill due dates, without the need to log into a banking app.
As voice banking has not been universally adopted by banks, service providers and billing entities, it may not be an option for handling all your banking tasks yet.
Requirements for voice banking
To initiate and complete a voice-activated transaction, you typically need:
- A virtual assistant (typically, a built-in feature of a mobile device)
- A payment method (e.g. credit card, digital wallet, etc.) linked to the virtual assistant
- A voice-enabled device like a smartphone or smart speaker
- Internet connection
If you want to conduct any voice banking tasks that require access to your banking account, you’ll also need to check if your banking app or website is integrated with the virtual assistant you use.
Some websites or mobile apps offer a virtual assistant that can help complete voice payments.
How voice-activated credit card payments work
Before making a voice-activated payment, you’ll need to check if the payment recipient (e.g., cable provider) supports the virtual assistant for payments. You may need to enable the voice payment feature in the service provider’s app.
Here are the steps you’ll usually follow to complete a voice-activated credit card payment:
- Use the voice command to activate your virtual assistant and follow any prompts to authenticate your identity.
- Issue a voice command to make the payment. You might say, “[Virtual assistant name], pay my cable bill.”
- Provide the payment details, including the amount to be paid and the payment method.
- Confirm the payment when prompted.
Pros and cons of voice banking
Voice banking allows you to conduct a transaction with just a few verbal commands, but before incorporating it into your banking practices, it may be helpful to know some of the pros and cons.
Pros
- It may take less time to pay via voice-activated prompt over manually inputting payment information into a provider’s app or website.
- This hands-free banking method may allow you to perform other tasks while managing your finances.
- Voice banking can be a helpful tool for people with disabilities.
- Virtual assistants can typically obtain financial information quickly, such as recent transaction details or account balances.
- The virtual assistant and card issuer provide a combination of security measures to help protect financial data and authenticate a user’s identity.
Cons
- Sometimes virtual assistants misinterpret commands due to background noise or other factors, which may prevent voice payments.
- Access to voice banking might be limited for non-native speakers or those with strong regional accents.
- If your banking app doesn’t support your virtual assistant, you won’t be able to perform any voice banking tasks that require account access.
- Not all service providers have integrated with virtual assistants to offer voice-activated bill payments.
- As virtual assistants often temporarily store information related to voice payments, some people have privacy concerns about this technology.
In summary
With voice banking, users can conduct various banking tasks, such as paying bills or accessing financial details, through voice commands. To complete voice payments, you need a virtual assistant, a linked payment method and an internet-connected device that’s voice-enabled.
Voice banking offers a hands-free way to manage finances, potentially benefiting people with disabilities or those who want to multitask. However, because some banks and billing entities haven’t integrated with virtual assistants, your ability to use voice banking may be limited.
