Application of prepaid cash card for consumer(week5)

What is a pre-paid cash card?
It is the card which requires you to load funds onto your card and use that money to make purchases and get cash — you are not borrowing moneyfrom a bank or other financial institution. The prepaid credit cards look, feel and work like a credit card but are pre-funded “stored-value” cards. It is easy convinient and flexible.
As a consumer, sometimes we would have facing problem of not having enough cash when we trying to buy somethingthat we like the most. And most of us will thought why don’t we bring a lot of cash so that we won’t be encountering such problem. This thought is unworkable as bringing a stack of cash is inconvenient and dangerous in the unsafe world that we are currently living in. In this situation, pre-paid card is the best tool in helping consumer to solve the above problem . Nevertheless, consumer would not face any overspending risk when using it as we can only spend the value contained in the card. A card that sure serves its purpose if we making budget planning for our expenses.



In addition, pre-paid cash card is faster and easier than using coins and bank notes; no more fumbling for that last little coin that you are certain that you saw in the bottom of your pocket.

In some foreign country like Singapore, they have applied a quite perfect pre-paid cash card system since few years ago. Hence, consumers in that country are not only using it when shopping but also using it for gas metering, car parking, car washing, arcade games, and vending machines.

Mobile Payment(week5)

Mobile payment also calls as mobile web payment or WAP billing. Is the collection of money from a consumer via a mobile device such as their mobile phone, Smartphone, personal digital assistant (PDA). Under mobile payment there are two primary models, which is Premium SMS based transaction payments and Mobile web payment (WAP). Premium SMS based transaction payments is where the consumer sends a payment request via SMS text message to a shortcode and a premium charge is applied to their phone bill. The merchant involved is informed of the payment success and can then release the paid for the goods. Whereas, Mobile wed payment is where the consumer uses web pages displayed on their mobile phone to make a payment.

Nokia and visa have teamed up to provide credit card users in Malaysia a chance to buy items using mobile phone. Using visa’s wave reader, a system that deducts a payment from a credit card when an NFC (near- field communication) mobile is pressed against it, the companies will test out the service in Kuala Lumpur where 200 users will try the technology.
The principal behind this is that customer has the cost of their calls or messages added to their mobile phone bill at an agreed tariff. This process is commonly known as Premium Billing or Reverse Billing. Any value-adding service can be offered to customers on a premium rate SMS basis. SMS costs are capped to an agreed cost per SMS MT and revenue is shared between the network operator and advertiser.
Mobile payment services are developing fast in the Europe and recently in Malaysia. Mobile payment service is also an effective means of providing customers with admission or money off vouchers which can be unique coded or designed to allow viral spread.
MobileExec currently provides premium rate SMS messaging across the all major Malaysian carriers - Celcom, DiGi, Maxis and TMtouch. Such services are currently utilised by many mobile content providers to receive requests and send ring tone, logo and picture messages.
MobileExec has successfully completed numerous such projects for Malaysian clients and more happy to share the experience with you.

Apart from convenience, security and savings, Mobile Money has much more benefits to offer to the Mobile Money Members. MM offer you Mobile Money Corporate call plan. With this plan, can make phone calls at a flat low rate to anybody on any network, and also enjoy 45 hours of free talk time within the Mobile Money Corporate Call Plan Community.
With this program, we provide an avenue for merchants to advertise their new products /services and allow our members and our mobile consumers to purchase the vouchers at a discount, and instantly gets a e Voucher.

Electronic currency (week5)

Electronic currency or electronic money refers to money or scrip which is exchanged only electronically. Typically, this involves use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems. Example of e-currency is e-micropayment which is the equivalent of paper currency and coins which enable secure and anonymous purchase of low priced products, Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit.

With the use of electronic currency, one can be benefits by it. It provide the individual with lots of convenience, and it also increase the process of transactions to be more efficiency by having a lower transaction fees, No less than that , it also provide more business opportunities with the expansion of economic activities by using Internet.

Although, electronic currency provide lots of benefit, but there are many potential issues with the use of this digital cash. The transfer of digital currencies raises many issues such as how to levy taxes and the possible ease of money laundering. There are also potential macroeconomic effects 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). To prevent all this issue, proper cyberspace regulations or laws has to be addressable to regulate and monitor the transactions of electronic currency.

Causes and Prevention of Credit Card Debts(week5)

Credit card debts are resulted when a consumer of a credit card company purchases an item or service through the card system without paying off the debts by accumulating the debts. As a result, the penalties for not settling the payment as well as interest go up.

The main cause of credit card debts is people cannot reasonably measure how much he or she has spent. The reason is due to they cannot physically foresee the money is flowing out from their hands. They perceive that they are not paying the money from the moment and they will keep on buying. As a consequence, the money they spent will end up in credit card debts.

People pile up credit card debt by increasing their spending without considering their income for a host of good reasons. With the advancements in every walk of life in today's world, every piece of electronic equipment or a household item or a fashion update has an increase in cost making the average monthly expense go sky high. The salaries don't increase the sameway and people with less income purchase more on their credit account and get hold of credit card debt.
Gambling is America's new entertainment. Everyone likes to gamble with the money they have. How many come back home with a bag full of cash, very few. The guarantee in this game of chance is that you will be definitely paying to the house. Gambling loans are also available which lead to debt

The prevention of credit card debts is simple, just set up a Direct Debit for the minimum amount and pay off as much of the remaining balance as possible to keep the debt low.
Besides, the smart card user only uses the card in place of cash, or to obtain a purchase they can afford, if they can pay off the cost over time. In other words, the smart card holder only spends what they can afford.

The user should never ever hold more than eight cards at any one time, as this will adversely affect credit ratings. Clear any outstanding balances and cancel cards that are no longer used. Police advise shoppers to only carry one card at a time to reduce the risk should their card be stolen.

Develop a monthly spending plan. It is important to know where your money is going. Hundreds of dollars are spent on unnecessary things and when there isa need of purchasing a required commodity you just don't have any cash left and use a credit card frequently ending up in debt. In case of debt, debt management must be adopted.A monthly plan is no more difficult then writing down your income and expenses. You are in control of your money when you make thoughtful decisions about where and when to spend your money.

If debt is growing, there are four things card holders can do immediately:
1.Move debts to the lowest interest rate available. Remember, a card holder with a good credit rating can always ring and ask the credit card company for a lower rate at any time.
2.Prioritize paying off the most expensive debt first, so interest is kept to the minimum.
3.Assess their situation fully, work out their income and expenditure, and total their debts and assets.
4.Take this information to a professional body offering free debt advice.
5.If a card holder is having major difficulties making repayments, say after losing their job, their first port of call should be the credit card company. Companies would far rather help at this stage than when the situation has escalated. Card holders can discuss freezing the card and paying off the debt at an agreed amount each month, for example. Card companies are surprisingly willing to help in cases of genuine difficulty, but this will involve major budgeting and belt-tightening by the card holder. Then they should consult a professional.

There are plenty of debt consolidation firms offering to help, but do bear in mind these companies ultimately make money from a card holder’s debt. There are four main agencies that offer free, impartial advice for those in debt: the Citizen Advice Bureau, the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, National Debtline, and Payplan. These are non-profit making organizations that guide those in debt through the options available to them.

When debt has got out of control, the two major options are an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA), and bankruptcy. Never consider these without consulting the free debt agencies and/or a professional insolvency practitioner first. These are serious actions with wide-reaching consequences for future credit applications of any sort.

With the introduction of bankruptcy, the credit card companies are concerned regarding this issue where the consumer purchases as many things as possible without even considering the debts they accumulate by declaring bankruptcy. With the declaration of bankruptcy, the credit card companies are required to forgive all or much of the debt, unless such discharge of debt is successfully challenged by one or more creditors, or blocked by a bankruptcy judge on legal grounds irrespective of creditors' challenges. Due to the forgiveness of debts reduce the likelihood of making profit and continue its business, the credit companies are willing to offer another deal to the consumers which is in the border of bankruptcy. This deal consists of removal of past late fees and penalty charges, and re-aging the accounts so that the credit agencies see them as late accounts to enable clients to offset their debts.