Electronic Currency

Nowadays, many people are consuming product such as mp3, eBooks and other product through internet. As a result, there appears a growing demand for electronic currency (e-currency) payment technologies that enable the purchase their desired items.

What is Electronic currency?

Electronic currency (also known as e-money, electronic cash, electronic currency, digital money, digital cash or digital currency) refers money which is exchanged only electronically. This process involves use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems. The examples of e-money are the electronic funds transfer (EFT) and direct deposit.
The following are companies using electronic currency system:

1. PayLoadz (payloadz.com)

2. BitPass (bitpass.com)
3. Paystone (paystone.com)
4. Peppercoin (peppercoin.com)


Examples of e-currency

PayLoadz, Inc. is a web development company which was founded in 1996. The privately-held company has over 60,000 registered users selling over 280,000 downloadable goods. PayLoadz is a service that sells intangible products such as softwares, e-books, digital art, manuals, articles and anything else that can be downloaded. It is an automated delivery service. This means that seller can go travelling without worrying about sending download links to the consumers every time a payment is made. These files can be either downloaded via hyperlink or sent via e-mail based upon seller’s product.
PayLoadz operates using PayPal's online payment system and Google Checkout. It offers two types of pricing: flat monthly fee (based on the size of sellers’ files) and another one is a fee that is a percentage of sellers’ sales, typically 15 percent. PayLoadz is a member of the PayPal Developer Advisory Board. As such, one of the requirements to use PayLoadz is that sellers need to have a Paypal Merchant Account which is free.


There are benefits given Payloadz:
Secure file storage on our servers
Automated delivery of your digital goods immediately after payment
Sell anywhere online: your own site, our Store, eBay and more.
Affiliate Builder, a fully-functioning affiliate tracking and payment system
Supports Downloads and CD fulfillment

Bitpass was another example of the online payment system for digital content and services. It was founded by Kurt Huang in December, 2002. It also partnered with major technology and financial services companies such as Microsoft, PayPal, the Royal Bank of Scotland and First Data.It works similarly to a pre-paid telephone card. What you need to do is you need to sign up for the service and top up into your account using a credit card or PayPal. Then the money then will credit towards your purchase.
However, on January 19th, 2007, CEO Matthew Graves make an announcement through an e-mail to customers that Bitpass will shut down due to circumstances beyond their control. On January 26th, 2007, the operations officially closed.


Advantages and disadvantages of e-currency
E-currency increases the process of transactions by provides the individual with lots of convenience. It also having a lower transaction fees as well as providing more business opportunities with the expansion of economic activities by globalization.
However, there are some drawbacks in using e-currency. Some of the disadvantages are how to levy taxes and the possible ease of money laundering. There are effects on macroeconomic such as exchange rate instabilities and shortage of money supplies (total amount of digital cash versus total amount of real cash available, basically the possibility that digital cash could exceed the real cash available).

Credit Card debts: Causes and Prevention

Credit Cards usage for nowadays are commonly apply by all Malaysian workers, households and students. This wonderful plastic card makes purchasing items so simple and easy. In this economic recession, with prices of goods and services going up while income remains unchanged, more and more Malaysians are expense beyond their earnings. Credit card debt is perhaps the most visible symptom of a bigger problem. Are you one of the Credit Card debts’ victims? Are you can manage your credit card properly?

Below are the causes of credit card debts;

1) Less Income and expense more
As we know that there are an increasing number of households using credit cards and some of the breadwinner of the household may use this credit card to pay their monthly expenses. If the breadwinner of the household loss his/her job, the monthly expenses will not cut down while reduction in income. This obviously leads to a rise in debt of credit cards for buying their needs.

2) Poor Money Management
Planning for monthly expenses is vital for everyone. Without planning, you may surprising there is an accumulated lots of debts and have no idea where the money is going. Besides, you may buy unnecessarily items which accumulated to the high cost and you have a mind set that credit cards payment is unlimited while you go to shopping. Therefore, you need to pay the interest for that unnecessarily items purchased every month as well as the accumulated debts.

3) Weak in self control and self determine
Besides, from the poor money management, a person self determine, attitude, personality will affect their expenses of the month. For example, a person may influence or approach by a promoter in the supermarket to buy a new product or promotion product. Therefore, personality and self determine of individual will affect them to buy the product or not. If they are weak in self determine may cause them to buy an unnecessarily items, this will increase the expenses and also debt amount as well as interest need to pay.

Below are some suggestions to prevent credit card debts;

1) Earn More, Spend Less
We must ensure to cut all unnecessary spending. Saving can come from changing in few habits, e.g. buy a pair of shoes when it is necessarily, buying supermarket branded grocery instead of regular brands. These may reduce the debts from our monthly budget by earning more and spending less.

2) Establish a budget and then follow that budget exactly
In other words, which mean that strengthen the money management. For example, do not buy new furniture using the credit card on a whim when have no budgeted for that month. Besides, a budget must suit for own capability. Such as monthly income is RM2000; therefore a budget for that month does not access RM2000.

3) Get a low interest credit card if your credit card's interest rate is excessive.
Before applying the new credit card, you must understand and find out what is the interest rate will be charged. Besides, you must understand the terms and conditions of applying credit card to avoid any unfair charges. Therefore, the better your credit, the lower the rate for which you will qualify.

4) Avoid bringing credit card go to shopping
If you think you are the squander while go for shopping, the most effective way is do not bring your credit card out for shopping and only bring cash, which the amount that you can spend according to your budget. This can help you save a lot of money.

Mobile payment systems in Malaysia: its potentials and consumers’ adoption strategies.

In Malaysia, most of the transaction is being done by cash payment. Mobile payment is a facility that enables the consumer’s mobile phone to pay for wide range of services and digital or hard goods. With the advantages of this technology, it has eased our daily life. According to a research, there will be 1.4 billion people who use mobile payment by 2015. Mobile payment is a point-of-sale payment made through a mobile device, such as a cellular telephone, a smart phone, or a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

Consumer’s adoption strategies:

The example of mobile payment system in Malaysia is MOBILE MONEY. It is a PIN-based Mobile Payment Solution designed by Mobile Money International Sdn Bhd to address the limitations created by cash, cheque and credit cards. It allowing registered users to pay for goods and services at anytime, anywhere by using mobile phone coupled with a 6-digit security PIN (Personal Identification Number) via SMS (Short Messaging Service). This gives the freedom to shoppers to buy products online and pay the merchant using mobile phone without being physically present at the store.

Although mobile payment is convenient to users, it not giving the confidence to the users. They feel unsecured and inconvenient when they are using the mobile payment because the afraid their personal information may be use by others people. If the mobile payment wants to be succeeding in Malaysia, there is a need to strengthen consumers in sense of the safety, security and the reliability of its networks. There also a need to educate consumers through seminar or advertisement about the function and the usage of mobile payment system. Furthermore, it should increase the number of company that can accept mobile payment system..

The Application of Pre-Paid Cash Card for Consumers

The concept of prepaid cash card is similar with credit card or debit card. It gives users the ability to buy goods and services without paying by cash. Users can only spend the balance that has been preloaded onto the card. At last, users will not run into debt like over used the credit card.

Example:

The most common one of prepaid cash card in Malaysia is Touch ‘n Go. It is easy and convenient for people bring to anywhere. Before this, we know that Touch ‘n Go not only for toll fares but also theme park, parking services and common ticket system (CTS) for rail transit system. Nowadays, Touch ‘n Go also applicable for retail payments. Six retail merchants comprising fast food chain A&W, Dunkin Donuts, Burger King, Caltex Starmat, Cathay Cineplexes and 7-Eleven together make up a total 15 outlets for payment purpose. In addition, Touch ‘n Go application also applicable for payments at outlets with drive-thru lanes. The purposes for the company continue come out these applications is to increase awareness of customer figure out a cashless society. The benefits of using Touch ‘n Go are increasing the speed of paying, eliminating debt risk with no chance to spend too much as the balance is limited to reloaded amount and the card can be used and top up in most of the places in Malaysia.

Another example of Prepaid Cash Card:

In Hong Kong, there are a lot of prepaid cash cards is provided, and one of the most common cards is the Octopus card. It is a credit card sized rechargeable payment card used for a variety of things but is primarily used for public transport such as Star Ferry, Buses, some minibuses, convenience stores such as 7-11, supermarkets, fast food outlets, or public telephone booths. The users just need to bring the Octopus card and no need to carry coins when making the payment. It launched in September 1997 to collect fares for the city's mass transit system. The Octopus card system has since grown into a widely used payment system for virtually all public transport in Hong Kong.


In foreign countries like Singapore, they have developed the performance of pre-paid cash card since a few years ago. The pre-paid cash card in Singapore like POSB MasterCard Debit. POSB MasterCard Debit card is the all-in-one payment card for everything you want to make such as the users can use this card for shopping with friends, treating friends to dinner or enjoying a holiday in overseas. In addition, the users also can enjoy instant access to their money anytime and anywhere.