Credit card is a card that repeatedly used to buy products or items and services on credit basis which issued by banks or other financial institutions. Extra and added security as well as ease of shopping and travelling is provided when using credit card. However, people tend to misuse their credit cards which lead to credit card debts. This leads to an increase problems of bankruptcies each year.

The major factor that brings to a credit card debt is poor money management. Poor management of money is one of the biggest causes of credit card debt due to the accumulated of credit card debts. People do not keep track on their bills and monthly expenditures. Without keeping record of their spending, people are not aware how much they are spending which raise debts in one month. If people continue to swip credit cards, they do not realize that later on in the future they are unable to pay back the debts.

Secondly is unemployment. Unemployment is also one of the factors that cause credit card debts. Due to economic downturn, many people lost their job and to make matter worse, they are unable to keep up with the daily living expenses. So the short cut way is to use the future money which is the credit card to cover up their future living expenditures. When the expenses are not cut down to cover the reduction of the income, this can lead to a rise of debt.

Lastly, the cause of credit card debt is no saving cushion. People will tend to use future money when they have credit. This means they do not have savings in the banks. It is hard to save money when they spend more than their income. The benefit of savings is to help to cover up the expenses such as illness, job layoff, education, insurance and other important expenses.

There are a few preventive methods can be taken to avoid credit card debt. Having a budget is important. By having budget, we have can think and plan our expenses. We need to keep track on our receipt and bills so that we do not over spend. By having budget, we shall can somehow prevent credit card debt.

Not to mention, self control and discipline is important. Those who have credit card they must learn to be self control and self discipline. This is to avoid overspending and can limit the credit card spending. Lastly is by contacting and dealing with the creditors. When you have problem settling your debts, you can address the problem with the creditors. They can identify whether they could give a revised payment arrangement.

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Mobile payment is becoming a major way of paying in Asia and Europe. Instead of using credit card or cash, user only need thier mobile phone to do a transaction. The market for mobile payment is expected to be at around $600 billion by the year 2013. This show that a lot of people are aware of the effectiveness of mobile payment and companies are venturing in to this service.

Mobile payment system is becoming a major way of paying in Malaysia. With around 25 million mobile phone user, and current infrastructure, mobile payment can attract a lot of users. With mobile payment, users do not need to take all the hassle to travel or line up to pay or purchase what the need. Even Bank Negara have acknowledge the emergence and usefulness of mobile payment but Bank Negara have put it at a low leval of usage due to confidence of the user and low awareness about the usefulness of mobile payment.

Even transferring money can be done online with just a few clicks on the mobile phone. Money can be even transfer from one country to other country and the recipient can withdraw the money sent by their love ones. Emergence of mobile payment allows the users, to pay all their purchases without having a credit card. All they need is a “NFC (Near Field Communication)” phone and wave it a special reader. Users can also make mobile payment through other method which is WAP (mobile web payment), direct mobile billing or premium SMS based transaction payment. Security is not an issue as the service provider will provide the necessary security.

In Malaysia, a lot of companies have been setting up their service here, Com2u Sdn Bhd enable users to transfer money using mobile phone while Maxis, Touch N Go, Visa, Nokia and Maybank is working on multi payment service which will enable user to pay everything using their phones. The service from Maxis now enable user to purchase their items from 1,800 participating Visa pay-Wave merchants and 3,000 Touch N Go points nationwide. With this, users of Maxis can now able to purchase anything they want without having to bring any cash or credit cards. Buying a products using mobile paymant is also fast and users do not need to queue as all users only need to put the phone near a reader and the payment is made automatically. Since this service is gaining popularity, there will be more and more large companies that will be joining the race to grab market share in the mobile payment sector.

Related Links :
Mis-asia.com
Newscentre.msc.com.my
Mobile88.com.my
Wikipedia

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Electronic currency or cashless transactions are transactions done or made electronically without the use of cash. Usually, users of electronic currency are provided with a plastic card with an electronic chip embedded on top of it to keep track the amount of cash stored in the card. These cards are the various forms of electronic currency can be used for purchasing items from a local shop, retailer, bookstore, petrol station and airport around the world that supports electronic currency technology in lieu of cash. In addition, consumers are able to use electronic currency to purchase items through the Internet.

There are several types of electronic currency cards, such as Debit Card, Credit Card and Touch n’ Go Card.

A Debit Card has a certain amount of money stored in the card by the user. When a user made a transaction, the amount of expenses made is usually deducted from the money stored in the card. Some debit card act as an ATM card where the amount of purchase is directly deducted in the user’s bank account. This allows the user to use the Debit Card to withdraw money from any ATM machines.

A Credit Card allows a user to purchase items in credit and made the payment to the bank after a period of time (usually a month). The disadvantage of Credit Card is high interest will be charged upon late payments.

A Touch n' Go usually acts as a prepaid card and the value of the card is depending how much a user wanted to top up with the minimum amount of RM10. Touch n' Go card are usually limited to pay transportation fees such as RapidKL, KTM, Kelana Jaya Rail Line, Ampang Rail Line and selected car parks like One Utama and Jaya One that supports the Touch n' Go payment.

 AirCash, M-Money and DiGiREMIT

In Malaysia, the three major mobile phone service providers, Celcom, Maxis and DiGi unveiled a mobile service that allows the user to deposit cash into a virtual account and transfer money locally and internationally. This service is also known as AirCash (Celcom), M-Money (Maxis) or DiGiREMIT (DiGi). This service is recently launched by Celcom but both Maxis and DiGi has this similar service 2 years back. The user is only required to possess a mobile phone device and register the service to the respective mobile service provider. Once the user is registered, the user is able to transfer the money from the bank account to the virtual account. In addition, the user could use the money in the virtual account to transfer money and purchase item such as grocery, petrol, books and others with the maximum limit of RM1,500. The entire process of transferring money and purchasing items are done digitally without the use of physical cash. Parents who have children studying abroad will be happy to have this service and it save them the trouble of using the bank to transfer money. Foreign workers could take this advantage to send money back to their home.

Thus, as we could see that electronic currency has beginning to play a crucial role in our life as it brought both convenience and security on using money. Instead of risking our safety by stuffing a wallet filled with cash to shop or transfer money, all we need is just a card or a mobile phone to do the job.

Related Links:

• Celcom Expects 500,000 AirCash Subscribers By Year-end
• Maxis Unveils Cell Phone Money Transfer
• DiGiREMIT – Money Transfer by Mobile Phone

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When we were young, we always admire how our parents swipe their credit card whenever we went out to shop for toys. The way we perceived credit card is like a wonderful magical card because it can fulfill all needs and wants without giving out a single dollar. That was when we were young and naive.

As time goes by, we knew credit card is not that wonderful and superior anymore as it is a LIABILITY. The moment when we swipe, we feel the excitement, our dreams fulfilled. But when the bill statement arrives, we are in HUGE trouble. That is when Prepaid Cash Card or Debit Card became popular.

The reason why these Prepaid Cash Cards or Debit Card became popular is because the consumers can easily control their spending desires as they know how much they spend is actually how much they owned in the card. Hence, lesser people applies for Credit Card and the desire for Debit Card or Prepaid Cash Card has increased.

So in fact, what is this Prepaid Cash Card?
-It is the combination of a credit card and a debit card which allows the cardholders to load money onto it and then use it at anywhere a debit card is accepted. Because the money is loaded onto the card in advance, there is no credit risk for the card suppliers, unlike with traditional credit cards.

The Advantages of using Prepaid Cash Card:

a)Availability - Can be used at anywhere as long as the debit card or prepaid card is accepted.

b) Control - they are an ideal way to budget for yourself or help to manage your spending.

c)No debt risk - with a prepaid card there is no chance of spending

too much as you are limited to the amount you

put/have on your card.

In Malaysia, the most popular Prepaid Cash Card is definitely Touch 'n' Go. Mostly people purchased it is because of convenience purpose as it can avoid long queue at the Plaza Toll as well as queue at the railway stations and etc. But Touch 'n' Go card still has its boundaries as it cannot 100% perform like a credi card where consumers can use it to purchase groceries at the supermarket or paying the petrol bill at the petrol kiosk. Hence, the debit card has been introduced.

There are many alternatives for debit cards such as PublicBank Debit Card, MayBank Debit Card and etc. But in my point of view, i think the most common debit card for now will be MayBank debit card. This debit card is actually our ATM card that can performs just like the normal credit card and can be used at most of the shops in Malaysia.

In fact, there are many Prepaid Cash Cards out there in the market. But to be frank, in Malaysia, Prepaid Cash Card's trend just started. Compared to other countries such as United State, United Kingdom and etc, their Prepaid Cash Cards' varieties are even wider than us as Prepaid Cash Card is widely use in their countries.

In conclusion, the application of prepaid cash card so far can be consider healthier than credit cards. But in my point of view, the best of all is still CASH!

Reference:
http://washingtonindependent.com/35944/prepaid-cash-cards-are-a-pricey-way-to-swipe

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