Electronic Currency
Electronic currency (also known as e-money, electronic cash, electronic money, digital money, digital cash or digital currency) refer as substitutes money in the form of notes or coins and transferred or exchanged electronically.Example system sell electronic currency: PayPal and WebMoney will sell their electronic currency directly to the end user but Liberty Reserve is only selling through third party digital currency exchangers.
Type of E-money:
Identified E-money
Contains information revealing the identity of withdrawer which withdrew money from the bank. Enable bank to track money as it moves through the economy.
Anonymous E-money
In cryptography, e-money refers to anonymous e-money. There is unlink between withdrawal and spend transactions, once withdraw from account it can spent without leaving transaction trail.
Varieties of each type E-money:
Online E-money
Online means that we need to interact with a bank (via modem or network) to conduct a transaction with third party. Online scheme is based in the blind signatures and keys cryptography.
Offline E-money
Offline means that we no need to interact with a bank (via modem or network) to conduct a transaction, instead we can collect multiple coins/notes Spent by users and Deposit them later with the bank, i.e. merchant could go to the bank with our storage media to exchange e-money to cash.
References:
Electronic Money, or E-Money, and Digital Cash
Electronic money
The application of pre-paid cash card for consumers
• Withdrawing- can withdraw the amount which has been deposit into the account from the ATM machine, like an ATM card.
• Online Purchase- can purchase any product or make payment through online
• Toll payment- Tough & Go card can pay the toll fee through touch & go counter or smart tag
• Top up mobile phone- can use to top up or transfer the mobile phone credits
• Virtual traveler’s check- can having a low cost alternative to paying for goods and services abroad, also provide safety for bring much cash on traveling.
• Bill payment- can use for pay insurance, packing fees, rental fees, electricity bill, water bill, loan, etc. Eg. UTAR student using PB Debit Card pay student bill
• Transportation fees- can use on the bus, LRT, railway station and etc in Malaysia
References:
Prepaid card
The cash plus prepaid gold MasterCard
Guide for prepaid card
Credit Card debts: Causes and Prevention
Credit cards are convenient and great budgeting tool, but when we abused use, the years-long nightmare is started and unbelievable stress. Nowadays, millions of people are getting stuck in the seemingly endless cycle of debt stemming from misuse of their credit cards.Many people believe having many credit cards in wallet is an essential sign of prosperity. But, they were forget that every single used from credit card has to repay and if carrying with balance there is some interest will charges on whole amount (minimum 1.5%). So, too many credit cards will translate into too many credit card debts.
To avoid credit card debt the first thing is to have only those credit cards which absolutely essential.
2. OverspendingSpending too much on things is likely the most common cause of amassing credit card debt. This is because card owner are spending with the future money, they taking out that credit card and swiping it through to get what they want. Spending beyond their income will cause them to quickly become buried in debt.
To avoid overspending, should make a budget for each month necessary expenses, beside that make an own record for each time using the credit card so can easily calculate the amount for expenses before overspending.
3. Poor financial managementMany people will using credit card for setting up an automatic bill pay, transfer saving and investment contributions. Some time the payer miss paying monthly credit cards bills, the bank or financial institute will charge them late payment penalty or more higher interest. The charge mostly is higher than the interest what the received.
To avoid this problem, we can keep a calendar (electronic or hard copy) for record down the payments due date so each time can remember us when we using the calendar.
Saving account is very important part of money management. Without saving or litter savings, we will likely reach for unable cover credit cards to unexpected or emergency expenses. This is a common mistake that can easily cause us to rack up credit card debt.
To avoid this problem is set up an automatic monthly transfer from our checking/current account to a saving account. The saving contribution will taken care for us, and in emergency, we won’t have to add charges to our credit cards.
5. Medical ExpensesNowadays many doctor clinic or hospital is accept credit cards payment. Medical problem is accidental happen without warning, we can’t predict when such problem will or will not occur. Since like that paying medical bills on credit cards is the most common ways to get trapped in debt.
To avoid this unforeseen medical bills we should maintaining an emergency saving fund to protect us. These bills may be unplanned for, but they are unavoidable. When problem arises, we able to draw a fund from the account to pay instead of racking up credit card debt.
Ways to safeguard personal and financia data
As Internet criminals grow smarter and sneakier in this digital age, it's increasingly difficult to keep your credit card and personal information safe. With spyware, viruses as well as hackers, if there are no basic steps to be taken to protect your information, you may find yourself a victim of online fraud or identity theft.
The following are a few approaches on how to safeguard your data:
1. Be cautious about providing personal information.
Establish a limit of the amount of personal information that you enter to a site. You should avoid in providing personal financial information or personally identifying details to organizations that appeared to be unknown.
2. Avoid accessing sensitive information in public.
These measures provide protection against thieves who look over your shoulder in which they might have installed sophisticated software on the public computer that records every keystroke and then e-mails that sensitive personal information back to them.
3. Be aware of the merchants with which you deal.
Ensure that it is a legitimate site, and not just a spoof of a real site. You are advisable to only do business with reputable companies in order to safeguard personal data.
4. Install and update anti-spyware and anti-virus programs
5. Do not use the same password for every last thing on the Internet
Once a hacker figures out a password, they’ll go ahead and try to see if it works on any other site. You have to make sure that the passwords are different a more complicated. Just throwing in a number or symbol at the end will make it hundreds of times harder for a person to crack the password.
6. Connect to secure wireless networks
Connecting to non-secure wireless networks is asking for trouble, for instance, constantly connecting to insecure wireless network will causes spyware to be appeared.
Additional Information:
