Mobile Payment System in Malaysia: Its Potentials and Consumers’ Adoption Strategies

Mobile Payment System in Malaysia
There are 4 billion mobile phones in worldwide but only 2 billion bank accounts. This is very raison for the new mobile payment system. It is a system using mobile devices to make transactions such as pay bills, perform banking transactions and etc. In order to enjoy the benefits of mobile payment, users have to register and activate an account with mobile payment service providers.


Cash payment in Malaysia still considers as a large portion of the number of transactions in the economy. Cash payment is expected to level off soon and stabilize with the increased use of electronic payments. It is because electronic payment can increase the speed of payment, convenient, and reduce costs. Mobile phone payment is identified as one of the delivery channels that should be leverage on. Bank Negara Malaysia sees mobile payment system has a tremendous potential in Malaysia considering that 88% of the Malaysian population are subscribing to mobile phone service. The high penetration rate affirms mobile phone network as an increasing common channel for Malaysia to perform activities such as make payments. Indeed, payment via text message has significant potential also. With 25 million mobile phone subscribers in Malaysia, there has potential to accelerate the migration to mobile payment.

Introduce new system to across an organization is not an easy task. After few years trial and error, many industries in Malaysia are really to go with mobile payment system. Maxis FastTap is an integrated mobile payment service that uses near field communication (NFC) technology. With this service, user who sign up for FastTop is available now to use the classic phone to purchase goods and services Visa payWave merchant locations as well as pay for toll, parking, theme park charge and etc and Touch n Go points nationwide.

Nowadays, Malaysian users can continue to enjoy the benefits of speed and convenient on their mobile phones. This innovation of electronic payment in Malaysia bodes well for the mobile payment innovation in future.

Credit Card Debts: Causes and Prevention

Credit Card Debts

Payment card covers a range of different cards that can be presented by cardholder to make payment. The payment card can be classified into types depend on how the account is managed. Different types of payment card include debit card, credit card and charge card. Among all the types, credit card is most popular. It is because cardholders can make purchases at merchants that accepting credit card without any cash payment. Credit card debts accessed through credit cards. Debts result when a cardholder make purchases either items or services through credit card system. Credit card debts will accumulates via interest and penalties when cardholder does not pay back the money of payment.

Causes

Nowadays, credit card debts have become flourish problem especially in campuses. One of the most common causes is excessive spending. Cardholder did use the credit card a lot and will soon apply another credit card. Normally, cardholder will just kept more offers and move the credit around from card to card.

Cardholder always has little or no saving. This is one of the major mistakes that easily cause the credit card debts. Cardholder will uses credit card to cover any unpredictable or emergency expanses.

Most of the credit cardholder falls into debts is only partially understood or lack of financial knowledge about credit card system. He/she has no idea about the debts and charges he/she is going to pay.

Poor money management includes monthly budgeting of credit card’s bill payment. This is one of the most general mistakes that easiest to make. For instance, cardholder will be charged high interest due to late payment of debts.

With the ease use of credit card, relying on it to meet monthly purchases and expenses become very common. Credit card looked as extra income. It absolutely will lead the cardholder down slippery road into debts.

Some of the cardholders may be more comfortable with debts. This cause is related to one’s debt attitude. Cardholder believes that their future earnings able to paid off the accumulated debts. He/she willing to tolerate debts, so that he/she can keep maintains their comfortable lifestyle.

In this time of financial crisis, many people become unemployed each day. He/she will reach for credit card to cover the daily expenses if he/she is having difficulties securing a new job.

Prevention

Prudent spending and being a responsible credit cardholder is the best against credit card debts. Cardholder should spend within the means, and if do make purchases by credit card, he/she should settle the payment as soon as possible. Never make a late payment to anyone.

Credit card debts are a problem for a significant number of students. Many of them lack the knowledge of how to handle the debts. Education is the key. Education must go beyond providing information. The earlier they learn how to manage finances, the less likely they will fall into debts problem.

Creating a new budget is an effective and efficient way to under control the spending. With the budget statement, he/she will be able to clearly know the exactly spending. He/she will able to cut out unnecessary expenses. Setting up budget is not easy. So, he/she can obtain free consultation services in some organizations. The key is always avoided extra expenses and purchases.

Credit card, when used properly, is convenient and an excellent budgeting tool. If abused, it will become the starting point of nightmare and stress. Remember that always ask yourself what you want the credit card for.

Phishing:Examples and its prevention methods

Phishing is an online fraud technique used by criminals to entice the people to share their confidential information such as account passwords, credit-card numbers or other information. It is also known as “carding” and “spoofing”. Phishing is the most powerful online crime method used by criminal for stealing personal finance information and perpetrating identifies theft.

Normally, Phishing is happens from social networking website, a fake website that accepts donation for charity and etc. It is normally carried out by e-mail messages, instant message program, spam and etc.

The following are some of the examples of Phishing:
1. This is an example of what a phishing scam in an e-mail message might look like.

Phishing (email scams) always includes official-looking logo and it will try to convince you to divulge the details about your confidential information on to their fraudulent websites.

2. This is an example of what a phishing website might look like.

How do we know if this is a legitimate bank website or fake website? The first indication is the slightly illogical problem that they are trying to persuade you to solve the problem: “some of our members no longer have access to their email addresses and we must verify it”. The second tip-off is that the address is supposedly secure (using the https:// notation), but there is no padlock icon in the bottom right hand corner of the browser window. Finally, the Address Bar is a fake. The website operator has turned off the address bar. Turning it back on using View, Toolbars, Address Bar reveals the proper address like this:

How can you protect yourself from Phishing:
1. Never reply to e-mail messages that request your personal information
Be aware of the e-mail message from the person that asks for your confidential information- or one that asks you to send your confidential information for updating.

2. Make sure the Website uses encryption
The Web address should be preceded by https:// instead of the usual http:// in the browser's Address bar. Before submitting financial information through a Website, you must look for the "lock" icon on the browser's status bar. It means your information is secure during transmission.

3. Don't click links in suspicious e-mail
Don't click a link contained in a suspicious message because the link might not be trustworthy.

4. Use strong passwords and change them often
Use the strong passwords combine uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols, which make the criminals difficult to guess. Besides, also can use different password for each of your accounts and change them frequently.

5. Do business only with companies you know and trust
Use well-known or established companies with a good reputation for quality service. A business Website should always have a privacy statement that specifically states that the business won't pass your name and information to other people.

6. Help protect your PC
Keep your PC updated & use antivirus software and firewall.


7. Monitor your transactions
You might use just one credit card for online purchases to makes it easier to track your transactions.

8. Use credit cards for transactions on the internet instead of debit cards to avoid the big credit limit from your bank account.


9. If you are uncertain about the information, contact the company through an address or telephone number you know to be genuine.

10. If you unknowingly supplied personal or financial information, contact your bank and credit card company immediately.

How to safeguard personal and financial data??

Nowadays, computer has become an integral part of our life. We depend a lot on computer for both personal and official works. As network crime is increasingly spreading like a wild fire, most of the users start to worry about their personal and financial. There are hackers who keep looking for vulnerable computers so that they can hack in and steal confidential data such as log in id, password and etc. So, safeguard of personal and financial data is needed to prevent or mitigate the attacks.

The following are the tips to protect your personal data:

(I) Make your password hard to guess
You can use combination of words, numbers and punctuation to form your password and change them frequently (at least twice a year). You should prevent from using any single word or easy number combination such as your birthday or your pet’s name that make the criminal easy to guess your password.

(II) Back up your personal finance information
Creating a copy or back up of personal data is a sensible as it is the easier way to help you to recover your information if a virus destroys your computer. You shall back up all the important data on your computer and keep it in a secure place.

(III) Avoid disclosing confidential or finance information to scam perpetrators
Confidential and finance information is valuable. You shall not give out confidential information through the email or over the internet, unless you know with whom you are dealing with.

(IV) Biometric System
Biometric system refers to automatic identification based on their fingerprint. Biometric authentication can provide stronger personal binding of access rights to confidential information over the traditional method. It can ensure personal or confidential data linked exclusively to the right person.

(V) Make sure the website is secure
If you have launched the website that require you to provide personal information, you must check the details in the address bar of the browser start with ‘https’ (the ‘s’ stands for ‘secure’).

(VI) Make sure anti-virus and anti-spyware are installed and up-to-date

These software can protect your computer against the viruses. You can either buy excellent anti virus software like Kaspersky Anti Virus or free anti-virus like AVG to install in your computer to avoid being detected.
Besides, anti-spyware helps to protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance and security threats caused by spyware. So you must ensure your anti-spyware updated and keep up with the latest forms of spyware. Some popular anti-spyware are SpySweeper, Adware and etc.