Sunday, February 15, 2009

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

Mobile payments are defined as the use of a mobile device such as Cellular Phone, Smartphone and Personal Digital Assistance (PDA) to conduct a payment transaction in which money or funds are transferred from a payer to a receiver via an intermediary, or directly without an intermediary. So Mobile Money helps to reduce the bottlenecks that created by cash, check and credit cards.


There have two primary models for mobile payment, which is Premium SMS, and Mobile web payments (WAP).

Premium SMS is based transactional payments, means that the consumer sends a payment via an SMS text message to a short code and a premium charge is applied to their phone bill.

Mobile Web Payments , which is the consumer uses web pages displayed on their mobile phone to make the payment.

Adoption of mobile and electronic payments systems:

  1. Compatibility: Compatibility captures the consistency between an innovation and the values, experiences, and needs of potential adopters.

  2. Complexity: Complexity and problems with usability have contributed to the low adoption of a variety of payment systems, including smart cards and mobile banking.

  3. Costs: There is a direct effect on consumer adoption if the cost of a payment transaction is on to customers. In order to gain a competitive advantage, a shopper in electronic channels should attentive to price the transaction costs of mobile payments to be low enough to make the total cost of purchase competitive with the physical world prices.

Electronic Currency


Electronic currency is also known as electronic cash, e-money, digital money, digital currency or digital cash which involves attempting to profit wherever one currency is traded for another. It is basically a system that allows people to pay for goods or services by transmitting a number from one computer to another. Identified e-money contains information disclose the identity of the person who originally withdrew the money form the bank. Moreover, anonymous e-money that withdrawn from an account can be given away or spent without leaving a transaction tray. Since internet and E-commerce are becoming part of our life and famous nowadays, thus electronic payments are also becoming the central part to online business between customer and seller.

Benefits of Electronic Currency Payments Systems

One of the most attractive features of electronic currency is that, unlike real cash, it is anonymous. This means that there is no way to obtain information about the customer when an electronic currency amount is sent from a customer to a merchant. Thus, there is an adequate protection against the privacy rights of the customer by using electronic currency.

After that, it allows us to do business and earn with only a few dollars of investment. Electronic currency trading is really up to you if you want to increase your investment or not and it does not demand much. Some electronic currency trading experts even suggest that beginners should begin with only a few dollars so that they can first discover the ropes about electronic currency. Therefore, you are given a lot of opportunities to profit without spending too much on investment through electronic currency trading.

The third benefit about electronic currency trading is that it is flexibility and convenience to the persons involved. You are given freedom on how to schedule your day since you do business online. Electronic currency trading business can conduct business anywhere and anytime in the world no matter is night or day. You can do business online whether you are at home, in the work place, at the coffee shop or virtually anywhere as long as there is an internet connection.

Low transaction cost is also one of the benefits of electronic currency trading because it unlike other businesses that eats up your profit with expensive fees. Electronic currency trading allows you to do business just with minimal fees and giving you more profit.

Examples of electronic currency are Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit. The computer-based systems used to perform financial transactions electronically are EFT while direct deposit refers to a banking term used to pass on to certain systems used to transfer money. Some examples of electronic currency payment systems and organizations are Free Digital Money and ePoint. Free Digital Money is a free open source project aimed at promoting ideas and stimulating further innovation in the field of digital bearer money. It is like cash and can be transferred person-to-person without going through a bank or PayPal account. Then, ePoint refers to a system designed for anonymous electronic transactions, including micropayments.

Credit Card Debts: Causes and Prevention

Credit card allows consumers to purchase items and services without using cash. When the consumers use their credit card, their credit card issuer will pay the merchant on their behalf and bill to consumers later in the form of a monthly statement.

 Credit card debt is the example of unsecured consumer debt, accessed through ISO 7810 plastic credit cards. The debt accumulates and increases via interest and penalties when the consumer does not pay the company for the money that they have spent. When consumer does not pay the debt on time, the company will charge a late payment penalty and report the late payment to credit rating agencies. The late payment sometimes referred to as being in default.


Causes of Credit Card Debts

Less Income and More Expenses.

It happens that the main bread-winner of the household loses their job but at the same time they do not cut down their monthly expenses with the reduction in income. So, the family is forced to use their credit cards for general household goods.

Poor Money Management.

The poor money management is the best reasons why so many families accumulate lots of debt. The consumers do not have a monthly spending plan and they are not keeping track of their monthly bills. This makes consumers unaware of where their money goes. While consumer’s money goes towards items that are useless, they might be charged on their necessary purchases on their credit card, this indirectly force consumers to pay interest on these purchases every month.

Hoping to win in the lottery

Most of the people hope to win lottery but the chances of that happening are 0%.

Consumers are advised not to spend tomorrows saved money today just because consumers expect a promotion in their job or expecting heritage from a decreased grandfather.

Big medical expenses

The cost of obtaining cures and medicine is increasing every year. Most of the doctors accept credit cards because when the consumers need treatment now, consumers usually do not have the cash. Consumers use their credit cards because they do not have enough savings in the bank.

 

Underemployment

When consumers are underemployed, its means that consumers are not getting enough working hours at their job, consumers should cut down their lifestyle to match their current income.


Prevention of Credit Card Debts

Eating out

It is not necessary that the consumers have to go out to have their dinner. It’s much cheaper if the consumers cook at home. Besides that, the consumers can also get some recipes from books or newspaper and try to cook it at home. 

Recreational shopping

For many people, shopping is not just about buying things. It’s a social activity and is a form of entertainment. If the consumers wanted to get out of the debts, the consumers must change their attitude towards shopping. The consumers are advised to go shopping less unless they plan to buy something specific.

Smoking

Smoking is even worse for consumers than junk food. Smoking is more expensive. The consumers have to use their new thrifty lifestyle as a reason to kick the habit.

Designer clothes

When the consumers have credit card debt, the consumers will have to learn how to live without those expensive labels. Designer clothes are by their very definition items of luxury. When the consumers are in debt, they cannot afford luxury.

Late fees

The best way to avoid late fees is try to remember to pay the bills on time. There are 2 ways to help the consumers to avoid the extortionate penalties and at the same time the consumers can improve their credit score. When consumers have better credit score, the consumers can borrow money at a lower interest rate.

 

The application of pre-paid cash card for consumers

Have you ever use or try pre-paid cash card? Before that, do you know what pre-paid cash card is? Let me explain to you what it is all about. Pre-paid cash card is an electronic card which holds electronic monetary value that substitute for cash and coins for low-value payments. One can use the credits in the card to purchase goods and services from various merchants. More and more people are using it. It is like a credit or debit card, and gives users the ability to purchase products and service with a card but with a crucial difference. Users can only spend the balance that has been preloaded onto the card. This means that there is no risk of running into debt as it has no credit or overdraft facility.  


Touch ‘n Go (TNG) card is a multipurpose pre-paid card which can be used in public transportation around Selangor and all highway in Malaysia. However, applications of Touch-n-Go are expended toward the retail purchases.  It is expanding its business to retail purchase by starting with fast food industry that enables consumers to buy dough nut, burger or fast-food from 21 outlets such as Burger King, 7-Eleven, Dunkin’ Donut. It is imitating the success of Hong Kong’s Octopus Card by setting 5 to 10% of the card holders for retail purchase as current target of the company.


Octopus Card was launched in Hong Kong on year 1997, September. It is a rechargeable contactless stored value smart card to transfer electronic payments in online and offline system. It is widely used in payment system for transportation, supermarkets, fast food restaurant, car parks and other pint of sale application such as service station s and vending machines that have achieved good outcomes.