Prepaid cash cards is a convenient and affordable solution for everyone now, it is just like the credit and debit card which gives consumers the ability to purchase products and services with no carry any cash with them. But there is some crucial different between them, consumers can only spend the balance before they have reloaded the card and it also known as pre-funded “stored-value” cards, which means prepaid cash card is not borrowing money from bank or other financial institution.

Generally, prepaid cash card gives an ideal on control and budget on spending and it do not need any requirements to register it. In contracts, using credit card will encounter a risk of getting into debt trap. Prepaid cash card is now steadily gaining in popularity because they eliminate the interest charges and it also giving a great alternative choice to solve the credit issue.

The Touch ’n Go (TNG) card is one of the common prepaid cash card that use in Malaysia on highway toll expressway, consumers no longer need to pay the toll fees by coin so it will speed up the queuing time. Furthermore, the Touch ’n Go even offer the Smart TAG card where the consumer’s vehicle can totally skip the queuing time by just install a device with plug in the Touch ’n Go card. Beside that, it have wider usage such as payment in petrol station, public transports, selected parking and theme park.

SmartRider, it can be use in Australia for the payment of transportation.

Octopus card, it can be use in Hong Kong for payment at supermarket, public transport, car park fees and etc.

EasyCard, it can be use in Taiwan for the payment of subway and boat ticket.

Mobile payment system has been widely introduced in developing country years ago. However, it has only been popular recently in Malaysia. The lack of advertisements and less involvement by required authorities are the critical reasons for the late introduction of mobile payment system in Malaysia.

Mobile payment system is a system that involves collection of money from a consumer through a mobile device such as his/her mobile phone, Smart Phone, PDA, or other similar devices. Mobile money plays an important role in mobile payment system.

Mobile money is an innovative mobile payment system that gives you the convenience of cash-free and card-free shopping as well as making remote payments. In this case, mobile device acts like a wallet. However, it does not hold your cash. It holds the value that you have in your registered savings, current or credit card account with participating banks.

Mobile Money International Sdn Bhd is one of the biggest mobile payment service providers in Malaysia. Mr. Lee Eng Sia sees the opportunity and potential of mobile money and thus initiated the idea of mobile payment system introduced in Malaysia. The company objective is to provide Merchants and consumers with a convenient and secure Mobile Payment and Mobile Commerce platform.

In accordance with the system designed by Mobile Money, a registered consumer is required to send a SMS which indicates his/her registered 6-digit security pin to merchant’s mobile phone numbers or bank accounts to make payments for goods and services purchased anytime, anywhere. In the same time, it allows user to receive money from anyone, from anywhere, at anytime. It also provides a list of miss call numbers for you to check your account, to get SMS instructions to purchase products and to top up your Money Mobile wallet, or to check your balances and last transactions. Illustration below shows how the mobile transaction works.

Although mobile payment system is not a fresh term anymore, however it still has huge potentials in Malaysia. The introduction of mobile money has benefited both participating merchants and consumers. Mobile money enables involved merchants to take online order without the requirement for online shoppers to disclose their credit card information. In the same time, it gives online merchants another option in the selection of payment gateway to be implemented. Furthermore, the cost-effectiveness of mobile money has make mobile money becomes favorable to merchants. In the same time, the beneficial functions provided by mobile money such as reliability and convenience will soon impose a significant growth in e-commerce industry in Malaysia. Thus, it will attract more merchants to adopt online selling as an extra sales channel, enhancing the use of mobile money.

On the other hand, consumers who use mobile money service are able to enjoy the convenience to pay anyone, including to any bank accounts from anywhere, at anytime. You can pay various bills and your loan repayments at home. The convenience, enhanced security and guaranteed safety promised add in more value into mobile payment system. With mobile money, consumer can start to buy and save from participating mobile commerce platform. In this case, cost saving and convenience have been important elements in attracting consumers to involve in mobile payment system. In addition, the functions provided by mobile money are additional add-in value in attracting consumer in using mobile money. It can function like a credit card if a consumer applies for a “Pay by Mobile Phone” credit card account. Therefore, the consumer will be billed by the bank by month’s end. Alternatively, it can function as a Debit Card if the consumer applies for savings or current account. The amounted consumed will be deducted directly from the account upon successful transaction.

In conclusion, mobile payment system may seem to be attractive and beneficial based on above discussion. However, mobile payment system in Malaysia is not well established. Consequently, merchants’ involvements, as well as consumers’ supports are greatly appreciated and required to popularize mobile payment system.

Electronic currency also knows as electronic money, electronic cash, electronic currency or digital currency. Electronic currency refers to money or scrip which is exchanged only electronically. Normally, it involves use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems. The examples of electronic currency are the Electronic Funds Transfer and the direct deposit. Electronic currency can provide many benefits such as convenience increased efficiency of transactions and lower transaction fees.

Peppercoin is a cryptographic system for processing micropayments. Micropayments are means for transferring very small amounts of money, in situations where collecting such small amounts if money with usual payments systems is impractical or very expensive, in term of the amount of money being collected. The peppercoin system was developed by Silvio Micali and Ron Rivest and first presented at the RSA Conference in 2002.Peppercoin Inc. was a company that offers services based on the perception method. The “Peppercoin” method uses universal aggregation, which we sometimes times also call cryptographic selection. The Peppercoin system ensures that consumers are never billed for more than he has spent.

Peppercoin’s micropayment system is the first that allows online merchants, banks and other companies build market adoption quickly through a consumer-friendly, pay-as-you-go approach that eliminate prepayments. Peppercoin integrates easily with existing business models and systems to accelerate revenues and increase profits while dramatically lowering transaction and customer services cost. Peppercoin collect 5-9% of transaction cost from the merchant. In 2007, Peppercoin was bought by Chockstone for an undisclosed amount.

Nowadays, credit cards had become major spending tools in our community. There are more people applying for credit cards instead of carrying cash in wallets or purses. We cannot deny that credit cards had brought a lot of conveniences to us, but, on the other hand, it also brought some disadvantages. One of the major issues that rose recently is credit card debts. It is a situation where many card holders owed too many debts by using credit cards and it leads to bankruptcy.

One of the common reasons that cause the credit card debts would be did not manage the finance well. Most of the card holder did not prepare budgets that show them the amount that they had spent by using credit cards. It is because they were not using cash. It is difficult for them to realize whether they were over budget by using credit cards. Another common cause that happens always would be too much credit cards. There are too many promotions nowadays. Many people were attracted by the promotions and started to apply cards one by one. At the end, they will overspend because they need to spend more to get the benefits from the cards’ promotions. Besides that, card holders with many cards will start to pay a card’s debt with another card. Things go round and round and at the end, the cards holder will start to realize that it is a bad idea. They will never finish paying debts.

Therefore, card holders need to prevent themselves from being credit card debtors. What they need to do is simple. First, create a budget. A good budget will helps card holders stay out of debts. They can clearly know how much they can spend and how much had they spent in a period. Secondly, pay off the balance on the credit card with the highest interest rate first. Many card holders did not notice this important point and leads to pay more interest. Card holders should pay the credits with the higher interest first to avoid the debts from increasing too much.

As a conclusion, the simplest way to avoid from being credit card debtors is by using cash instead of credit cards. One or two credit cards for emergency use are enough for a person. We must use credit card wisely to get out from debts.