The application of pre-paid cash card for consumers

A prepaid cash card looks like a credit or debit card. But, the differences are prepaid card users can only spend when the prepaid cards are reloaded its balance. A prepaid cash card allows consumers to purchase something even when they don’t have the cash to pay for it. It benefits consumers in their everyday life. So, Prepaid cash cards are designed to be used as a safer alternative as compare to cash. It allows consumers to have a better control over their finance.

The Application of prepaid cash card :

1.Online shopping - Prepaid card users can purchase any products and make payment through online.

2.Bill payment - Rent, utilities, insurance, car payment, and cell phone bills can be paid instantly.

3.Withdrawing and transferring cash – Prepaid card can withdraw cash through any ATM machine . It also can transfer cash to other people or receive cash from another people through ATM machine.

4.Topping up mobile phone – Prepaid card can be used to top up mobile phone’s credits. Funds can also be transfer to the prepaid phone via text message.

5.Toll payment - Using Touch‘n Go card is an expressway of making toll payment at all highways and use for public transports’ fares like bus, LRT and so on in Malaysia.

6.Virtual traveler’s check - Some prepaid card like MasterCard travel card is acceptable in worldwide. Card users can ask their family to deposit money and use it when needed in the trip


Benefits of using prepaid cash card :

1.Consumers can go for shopping without carrying loads of cash but only shopping with a card which is safer.

2.Consumers can control their spending which only can spend the amount deposit in the card.

3.Consumers who make debit card purchases are free of interest charges associated with credit cards.

4.Consumers can conveniently and inexpensively transfer funds to friends and relatives everywhere.

Electronic Currency

Electronic money can be defined as money or scrip which is exchanged electronically. Basically, this exchange process involves the use of computer networks, the internet, as well as digital stored value systems. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit are examples of electronic money. On the other hand, it is a collective term for financial cryptography and technologies enabling it.

Hereby, there are two types of famous electronic currency are needed to demonstrate, which are PayLoadz and Peppercoin.

The PayLoadz system works in conjunction with PayPal or Google Checkout to provide anyone who wants to sell a digital product the platform to do so. It is especially useful to merchants wanting to sell intangible goods to customers’ right from their own web site or in online auctions. There is no special programming or server requirement needed. In other words, it just cut and paste the HTML code provided.

The following information shows how PayLoadz delivers the digital goods to the customer:

1.A customer browses a web site and finds the product that they would like to purchase.

2.They click the “Buy Now” links generated from the PayLoadz system to add an item to their shopping cart.

3.Once finished adding items, they click on “Check Out” to purchase their items.

4.They will be prompted for their PayPal or Google Checkout Username and Password. If they do not have an account, they will be given the opportunity to create one or to check out without creating an account using a credit card or bank account as their funding source.

5.After they have completed the payment process, the PayPal or Google Checkout server communicates with the PayLoadz server and provides the transaction details to our system. This communication takes place “behind the scenes” neither the customer, nor the merchant, sees this process.

6.Our system then sends your customer an email which contains custom “thank you” text that you specify during the product creation process, and a link to download their product. They are also redirected to the download page, immediately after payment at PayPal and Google Checkout, that provides them instant access to their purchase.

7.The link is an encoded link that, when clicked, processes at the PayLoadz web site instantaneously and prompts the customer with a download popup box asking to “Save” or “Open” the file.

8.The whole process happens in a matter of seconds. You are notified with two emails, one duplicate of the email sent to the customer from PayLoadz, and one for Notification of payment from PayPal or Google Checkout. We send the duplicate download email to you in case there is any problem with the email delivery to the customer. A person can purchase and download your goods in under a minute.
On the other hand, Peppercoin develops and markets an innovative suite of products and services for processing small payments that enables merchants and financial services companies to grow revenue and profits through the sale of low-priced offerings. When digital and physical merchants deploy Peppercoin, consumers can use their debit and credit cards for purchases of any size.

Furthermore, Peppercoin offers:
(i)Purchase Plan Flexibility- Supports blended pay-per-use, pre-paid, subscription and post-paid payments.
(ii)Market Flexibility- Supports physical point-of-sale, online and mobile transactions.

Besides that, it helps merchants increase revenues while decreasing costs associated with small payments.

1. Increased revenues:
From new low-priced products for sale
From new, card wielding customers

2. Decreased costs:
Intelligent Aggregation™
Automated Consumer Self-Care
Lower costs resulting from Peppercoin's distributed processing and storage

Lastly, Peppercoin resolves key processing challenges by:
1.Reducing transaction processing costs with Intelligent Aggregation™.
2.Minimizing customer service expenses with online, automated consumer self-care.
3.Managing exposure to risk.

Related link:
http://help.payloadz.com/help/default.aspx?page=FAQ.aspx#pyldz
http://gold-pages.net/Peppercoin.htm
https://www.payloadz.com/?gclid=CJS-kOX9u5sCFY0vpAodRlJ92w

Credit Card debts: Causes and Prevention

Credit card is a plastic card which having a magnetic strip that may be used to purchase products and services on credit repeatedly which issued by banks and financial institutions. It is usefulness in establishing your financial independence especially for emergencies. Unfortunately, a lot of people tend to misuse credit cards when they can’t afford something to satisfy their desirable. This is where credit card debt arises where debt increases via interests and penalties that they never perceive the amount used whether affordable or not. Thus, the problems of bankruptcy never decrease but increase gradually in each year.
There are five of the causes of credit card debts that I would like to discuss in the following:

1. Poor money management
Poor money management is one of the bigger causes that why people have accumulated many credit card debts and the increasing of the bankruptcy. Generally, people will likely to keep on spending with using the future money without perceive that they are unable to pay back the debts by using credit cards. Without conducting spending plan and keeping bills or receipts, people will never realized how much their spending on the unnecessary items and the increasing debts and interests should be charged every month.


2. No saving cushion
Nowadays, many people don’t understand how to save and invest for a rainy day. When people using credit cards, they would like to use the future money and have not extra money to save in bank. In this condition, people will be tough to manage their saving as they are spending more than their income. It is very tempting and may found difficulties to pay back the amount since the saving account is negative.


3. Unemployment
Many people lost their job and unable to maintain their living expenses due to the economic depression. They are forced to use the future money to cover their future living expenses by over using credit card. When expenses are not cut down to cover the reduction in income, this may lead to a rise in credit card debts.


4. Gambling
Gambling has become a popular part of entertainments in today. When it becomes addictive then it is hard to stop. Not doubt that, it will lead to financial disaster if borrowing through credit card for gambling.


5. Excessive medical expenses
The cost of obtaining cures and medicine is increasing every year. Normally, credit card becomes one of the sources of fund to pay off the medical expenses if health insurance is not adequate to cover the medical bills. This also will lead to rise in credit card debts.


People should think of the solution to avoid themselves from credit card debts by not keep on blaming the situation. The debts are not a curse and it might be a signal for people who always owe many debts to learn how to responsible in life. There are some tips to prevent credit card debts:


1. Conducting a budget
In order to eliminate the credit card debts, people have to make a budget and follow it. This will prevent from overspending and fall under deeper debt load. In addition, budget planning also can record how much money was spent in order to control the desirable of them. Credit card users also are advisable to pay off the lowest amount first and the following to pay off the second lowest amount. This can allow you to pay the lower amount of interest and buy more.


2. Self control and disciplines
People who using credit card should learn how to have a better self control and discipline so that able to pay back the full amount of debts each month and use in emergencies. People can cut up their credit cards which have the highest interest rate and the lowest one should be deemed an “emergency card”. Moreover, they also can control themselves by limit their credits card amount by stopping them to use the money. This may reduce the expenses more than their budget.


3. Communicating and dealing with creditors
People can address the problem to creditors instantly to investigate whether they could give revised payment arrangement when facing trouble to pay off the huge debts. They also can refer to Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to identify debts problems if the collection of money from creditors is not fair enough.
In my conclusion, using credit card is avoidable unless it should be used for emergencies and you are affordable to paying off the amount due immediately.

Mobile Payment Systems In Malaysia: Its Potentials And Consumers' Adoption Strategies

Mobile payment system can be defined as a point-of sale payment made through a mobile device. It enables consumers to receive and send money by using mobile device such as mobile phone, Smartphone, Cellular telephone and personal digital assistant (PDA). With that, consumers no longer need to bring any cash or credit card while travelling; they just need to use their hand phone as their credit card to make the payments. It is more convenient for consumers especially in this fast growing market. The largest credit card payment system is visa which launches a universal system and signed with mobile giants. Mobile giant like Nokia launches this service in Nokia handset which allows customers to remote payment, person-to-person payments, and contact fewer payments.

For Malaysia itself, at November 21, 2001 the first mobile payment system in Malaysia launched, malaysian can enjoy the secure and convenient way to conduct mobile commerce using a GSM cellular phone. TeleMoney, the country's first mobile payment service and it is expected to fully operational in the first quarter of 2002.
Besides that, Mobile Money International Sdn.Bhd is a Mobile payment system in Malaysia which implements the MM wallet and allows customers to send a payment request through an SMS text message by personal identification number (pin) authorization to pay their bills. Consumers can SMS-transfer money to anyone, anywhere, and anytime.

On the other hand, mobile payment systems can be used for purchasing musics, ringtones, wallpaper and games (there are many of these type of service or product offered in Malaysia’s newspaper). Most Malaysian buys these ringtones and games via mobile payment, either via GPRS/WAP or SMS (premium SMS based transactional payments).

There are few types of mobile transaction can be made:
(i)Premium SMS transaction
(ii)WAP (mobile web)
(iii)Mobile payment providers

The potential for this market is quite big, because it is very convenient to use mobile payment. The mobile payment providers have a large market share to be grabbed on. This mobile payment is still new and developing in Malaysia. It has potential to continue to grow as consumer’s confidence on mobile payment increased. Mobile payment providers have most potential for growing.

To put it simple:
(i)Market still at developing stage
(ii)Many mobile phone users
(iii)Low competition

The consumers’ adoption strategies are as follows:

1.Educate consumers about mobile payments, how to use and introduce its functions (e.g. bill payment, mobile purchase).

2.Enhance security and confidence to mobile users.

3.Collaborate with more banks and companies to widen the ability to pay via mobile at the same time it helps to increased customer’s satisfaction and confidence.

4.Maintain customer’s loyalty.

Currently Mobile Money has teamed up with Hong Leong Bank Bhd and Bumiputra-Commerce Bank to allow consumers to make payments via their bank accounts linked to their mobile phones. It is targeting 1 million Malaysian mobile phone subscribers with the belief that sending cash via SMS will eventually become part of the daily life of the Malaysian community.

Related link(s):
•http://mobile-money.com.my/about_us.htm
•http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid40_gci772807,00.html
•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_payment
•http://www.mymode.com.my/html/new/index.jsp