Credit Card debts: cause and prevention

Credit card is a card issue for issuer leads money to the consumer to pay later to the merchant. When it is used properly is convenient. However, if abused, credit card can be the start of a years-long nightmare and stress.

Causes

Credit card debt can be causes by carrying a balance, though, is very costly. There will have high interest rate and minimum payment rate per month (usually about 2% of the balance).

Second causes are having a poor money management. Holders might have debt with the card issuer which is over their ability to pay. A monthly spending is essential to acknowledge holders where the money is going. They may be spending some unnecessarily money each month and end up having to charge purchases on which should have spent that money.

Beside this, saving too little or not at all also is one of the causes of credit card. The simplest way to avoid unwanted debt is to prepare for unexpected expenditure by saving three to six months of living expenses. With saving, job layoff, illness and so on will not cause immediate financial strain and increase of debt.

Prevention

The prevention for credit card debt is establishing a budget and follows that budget. For instance, don’t be tempted to charge plasma TV to credit card when haven’t budgeted for it this months.

Carry a credit card balance for no longer than six months. This is due to simple interest can produce a very expensive balance to pay off. It is help credit card balance getting more.

Beside apply a credit card, when you credit card interest rate is excessive try to get a low interest credit card. The better the credit card, the lower the rate for which you will qualify.

Application of Pre-paid Cash Card for consumers

What is a pre-paid card? Actually, pre-paid card is like a credit or debit card. The pre-paid cash card is a card that you can use to make purchases by just swap the card on the counter.

Since it is a prepaid card, you need to put money on the card which you can reload at the retail location where you pruchared the card or directly deposit of your checks. Besides, some of the pre-paid cash card can do over the phone or online before you using the card to do any purchases. You can continually put money onto the card if you want to, but you cannot spend more than the balance you have left.

Pre-paid cash cards provide a lot of benefits to the consumers. Pre-paid cash cards applications are best used by consumers who have a poor credit record or by young children. This is because, if the consumer has a poor credit record, the consumer may not be eligible for a credit card, as the credit card companies will not want to take the risk on lending money.

As for younger people, parents can get their kids used to using financial products by getting them pre-paid cash cards and putting money on it, however only in a small increment, which allows them to manage their money and use a cash card from a young age with no danger of getting into debt as you are not allowed to spend more than the balance you have on the card.

Besides that, by using pre-paid cash card consumers can bring less cash to shopping. With this, they no need to worry that the cash being stole by others. With pre-paid cash cards, you are protected from unauthorized transaction if the card is lost or stolen. Furthermore, the cards can be replaced if lost or stolen.


There are few example of the pre-paid cash card, such as, Touch n Go which normally use in major public transports, highways and selected parking sites in Malaysia. EZ-Link cards are another example which is used in Singapore. Another example is Octopus card that used in Hong Kong. It like Touch n Go card, however it can be used in more area compared to Touch n Go. So, most of the Hong Kong person are using this card because it very convenience.

Electronic Currency - Beenz.com

Electronic currency also known as electronic money which refers to money or scrip which is exchanged only electronically. Typically, this involves use of computer networks, internet and digital stored value system

Beenz.com was a web site that allowed consumers to earn beenz, a type of online currency, for performing activities such as visiting a Web site, shopping online, or logging on through an Internet service provider. The beenz e-currency could then be spent online with participating Web merchants around the world. Beenz.com, originally founded in 1998, will close offices in Europe and Asia, but will keep its New York offices open in order to manage the sale of its assets.At the height of its operations in 2000, Beenz employed 265 in offices worldwide.

There are some hints over beenz will not stay long as two of the company's top executives - CEO Charles Cohen and president Don Maguire quit their post and joint venture operations in Japan, China, Korea and Italy were shuttered.

When beenz is closing down, the company is giving its customers a 10-day notice. The Beenz.com home page says that any beenz remaining in a member's account after 12:01 am (EST) on August 26th will be invalidated and the member will not be entitled to any compensation of the invalidated beenz.

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

One of the few mobile payment systems in Malaysia is from the collaboration of Nokia and Visa whom jointly released the world's first credit card payment pilot system in Malaysia, allowing consumers to shop and pay using their mobile phones. It builds on the Visa Wave smart card technology that uses radio frequencies to eliminate the need to swipe credit card into a reader. Customers wave cards or phones in front of the reader to make payments. Prototype phone to be used in the Visa pilot project is embedded with a chip using the latest cryptography, security and smart card technologies, making it highly secure and difficult to counterfeit.


Besides that there is a mobile payment system that from Malaysia for Malaysians, namely Mobile Money. Mobile Money provides merchants and consumers with mobile payment and mobile commerce platform. It has a lot of product and services, for example paying bills, topping up a whole range of prepaid, and shopping with your mobile phone. MM Mobile Payment platform allows everyone to pay anyone, at anytime from anywhere with just one SMS. It also allows one to receive money from anyone, from anywhere, at anytime.
In order for these mobile payment systems to be successful, consumers need to be exposed to the benefits of using such services. For example the benefits of not carrying cash around anymore if the consumers practice such systems. Besides that, advertising should be more extensive in order to introduce these systems to more people. Mobile payment system has great potential for growth as it will eliminates the use for cash or reduce the use of cash in the future.

How to safeguard our personal and financial data?

There have many ways to safeguard our personal and financial data. One of the ways is password. Password is a code you create to control people enter in your software or data. It is keeping unauthorized users off the network. The password can consist of numbers or letters (or a combination), up to eight characters in length. The longer the password the more secure the data.

Encryption key also is a way to protect our personal and financial data. The encryption key is a special code we can create that is used to decode our financial data, making it reliable again to those receiving it at the other end. Both we and the receiver must know the encryption key, because it is the only way that you transmitted data can be read. Encryption key is similar with password, it also consist of letter or number (or combination), up to eight characters in length. The longer the code, the more secure your data.

Beside this, we also can install a firewall to safeguard our personal and financial data. A firewall is a software program running on computer, which inspects network traffic passing through it, and denies pr permits passage based on a set of rules. Most computers come with firewalls integrated into their operating system. A firewall’s function within a network is similar to firewall with fire doors in building construction. It is use to prevent network intrusion to the private network.

In addition, install and update antispyware and antivirus program is anther way to safeguard our personal and financial data. Antivirus software are computer program that to identify, neutralize or eliminate malicious software. Nowadays, antivirus software is designed to combat a wide range of threats, including worms, phishing attacks, rootkits, Trojan horses and other malware.

Physical protection is also very important to safeguard our personal and financial data. We need to stop a thief from taking our Mac and browsing its contents. This is where the need for Hardware protection comes in and fortunately it couldn’t be easier to do this. Kensington’s MicroSaver is used to anchor down our Mac and need used with any Mac.

Phishing

Phishing is an act that trying to obtain sensitive information such as credit card number,password , personal information and etc, by imitate legistimate companies in sending false e-mail or link to user. Many cases had happen in pass 10 years which including eBay , PayPal, Citi Group and etc. Phishing is mainly target on financial institute.

Below are some example of phishing e-mail:-

Example of Phishing on HSBC Bank Malaysia.

By clicking the link it will direct customer to the phishing website, as below:

The phishing website is imitate the legistimate companies website ,so when the link direct to the page, if the customer does not aware about the threat and key in the info and summit it. Their infomation will be stolen.

Example of Phishing mail of Maybank.

Maybank has make a security alert to their customer on net during 10/06/08.

Although, phishing scam is always around , but if we make extra alert on the situation we might not be the victim. Prevent on the scam is necessary as it threat to our sensitive info .The following can use as method of prevent phishing:


1. Do not trust any online communication ( eg. e-mai, web) as the bank or financial institute will not ask for personal infomation through web or e-mail. They usually will doing updating or confirmation of information through letter. If you are not sure, to trust on the site, make a call to the relevant company or institute for confimation on the website.


2. Check the URL link before clicking on it, make sure the link is the actual link of the companies.If it is a phishing, the URL link will appear in unusual link other than actual company's link and the page is not in a secured page as bottom of the page will show a padlock.

3. Think twice before enter any sensetive and personal information. Be alert that, when someone asking for information. Ask others about the situation face, as others may give advice on that.


4. Keep up-to-date with the latest security patches. For those who engage in online financial transactions must have the personal fireware and security software ( with anti-virus, anti-spam and spyware ).

The threat of online security: How safe is our data?

Internet is become more and more popular in world wide. Human are become more and more rely to the computer. We can find much information through the internet. However, internet is not a safe place for the web users. Every unprotected online computer can be affected with the viruses, malware, adware, hackers’ attacks and Trojans with only in 20 minutes. On the internet, there are numerous security risks that can lead the web users to serious financial loss, information theft and the attack on web user’s computer. The common online security threats include the following.

The most common online security threat is viruses. A virus in the computer is a program or programming code that replicates by being copied or initiating its copying to another program, computer boot sector or document. Through attachments to an e-mail note or in a downloaded file, viruses can be transmitted. Besides, it may also present on a diskette or CD. Some of the viruses may wreak their effect as soon as their code is executed. While, others viruses may lie dormant until circumstances cause their code to be executed by the computer. Moreover, some of the virus can be quite harmful, erasing data or causing your hard disk to require reformatting. A virus replicates itself by resending itself as an e-mail attachment or as part of a network message is known as a worm.

Spyware is another online security threat. It is any technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge. On the internet, spyware is a programming that is put in someone’s computer to secretly gather information about the user and spread it to advertisers and other interested parties. A software virus or installing a new program may create an opportunity for spyware to get in to the computer.

Adware is any software application in which advertising banners are displayed while the program is running. The authors of these applications include additional code that delivers the ads, which can be viewed through pop-up windows or through a bar that appears on a computer screen. Besides, adware can usually be thought of as spyware as well because it almost invariably includes components for tracking and reporting user information.

Malware is any program or file that is harmful to a computer user. Thus, malware includes computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and also spyware, programming that gathers information about a computer user without permission. Furthermore, it can hijack your browser, redirect your search attempts, serve up nasty pop-up ads, track what web sites you visit, and generally screw things up. Moreover, it usually is poorly-programmed and can cause your computer to become unbearably slow and unstable in addition to all the other havoc they wreak.

Hackers are a term used by some to mean “a clever programmer” and by other, especially those in popular media, to mean “someone who tries to break into computer systems.” It also describes someone who attempts to break into computer systems. This kind of hacker has the sufficient technical knowledge to understand the weak points in a security system and act maliciously.

A Trojans horse is a destructive program that masquerades as a benign application. Unlike viruses, Trojan horses do not replicate themselves but they can be just as destructive. One of the most insidious types of Trojan horse is a program that claims to rid your computer of viruses but instead introduces viruses onto your computer.

With the specialized hackings tools and scripts that are special designed, the unprotected computer may be attacked. So being a web user, it is very important that web user to learn something about the common online threats. Besides, the web users should learn some protection against these few threat that we have just discussed. So that, our important data and information can be protected from theft and does not causes us financial loss.