Credit Card debts: Causes and Prevention

A credit card is a system of payment named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. In the case of credit cards, the issuer lends money to the consumer (or the user) to be paid later to the merchant. Credit card allows the consumer to 'revolve' their balance, but at the cost of having interest charged.

The reasons of overspent the credit card can be due to the user’s attitude. When you pay cash, you can "feel" the money leaving you. This is not true with credit cards. Flipping a credit card up on a counter registers nothing emotionally. Besides that, with using the credit card, it would be harder for you to know that how much you have spent so far, especially for those who are poor in manage their finance. In addition, if users cannot pay for the bills on time, the amount that you need to pay will become bigger and bigger since the interest imposed is high.

To prevent credit card debts become your burden, try to use less of plastic card. If you ‘have to’ use plastic, debit card can be an alternative way. Moreover, you should do a personal budget in order to understand how much money is available for you to spend and so on. Thirdly, yet importantly, clear all the card’s bills every months in order to avoid paying high interest amount. Don’t ever look down on the interest rate of 18%, this might trap you into debts.

Finally, hope that all the users can understand the pros and cons of credit card and think twice before sweeping your card.

A review on a post on e-tailing from My E-Commerce blog.

I believed most of you have used the Touch & Go card to pay the toll fee and public transportation. But, have you ever try to buy fast-food through your Touch & Go card?

Touch & Go card, as one of the most popular pre-load cash card in Malaysia, is now expanding their applications and services towards some fast-food industry. However, what a pity is that this new service provided is not applying to whole Malaysia, but restricted to some particular outlets only.

As the world economic is becoming worse and might be followed by a recession, it would be more safe for us to bring a card to go out rather than a huge amount of cash. Once your card is running out of credits, you may top-up it at anywhere in the Malaysia. Unlike credit card, you would have no worries about how if you over spent the money. Therefore, you are able to control your spending according to your financial ability. Besides that, with using of this card, you can buy things more efficiency. You can just pay your bill with a card, instead of pick up your wallet and take the bank notes and waiting for change.

Lastly, hope that there will be more similar services being provided to Malaysian.

References:

http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/2008/04/using-touch-n-go-card-to-buy-fast-food.html

The application of pre-paid cash card for consumer

What is prepaid card? Pre-paid cash card about the same as Debit Card. The prepaid card is far from a new idea. How many of us have used a prepaid gift card or a prepaid mobile phone SIM card? The concept is basically the same. A prepaid card looks like a credit or debit card, and gives users the ability to purchase products and services with a card but with a crucial difference - you can only spend the balance that has been preloaded onto the card. This means there is no risk of running into debt as it has no credit or overdraft facility. How do they work? Money can be loaded on to a prepaid card by cash at a bank, Post Office, at Payzone or PayPoint terminals, bank transfer, through ATM machine or even by another credit card. When using for purchasing at a store, they work in exactly the same way as a credit or debit card - you simply hand the card to the cashier. You will be asked to enter your PIN number (supplied with the card) on an electronic keypad or to sign a payment slip so your signature can be matched with that on the back of the card (if there is no Chip on the card). The total amount will be taken from your card immediately and the transaction is complete.

To shop online, you'll find the item you want to buy and click on to the website's "checkout" page before filling in your details and those of your prepaid card. As long as you have enough cash loaded on your card (the website checks this by the usual means of an authorisation), the purchase is completed and your item will be shipped to you.

What are the benefits of using the pre-paid card? There are numerous benefits to the prepaid card. These include:

• Availability - There are no credit checks, which means you can get a card without worrying about your credit history. All prepaid card providers will carry out an Identity check to confirm you are who you say you are.
• Control - prepaid cards are an ideal way to budget for yourself or help to manage your children's spending. Like a credit card you get a full breakdown of spending on the card so you can see what has been purchased, who from and when.
• No debt risk - With a prepaid card there is no chance of spending too much as you are limited to the amount you put on your card.
• The card for travel - As well as being able to top up the card, depending on the specific provider, you will be able to use it at ATMs worldwide. Many providers now offer dollar and euro cards and offer a better exchange rate on their travel cards than what is commonly available from bureau de change.

references: http://usa.visa.com/personal/cards/prepaid/ http://www.moneyextra.com/cards/prepaid-cards/index.php

Mobile payment system in Malaysia: Its potentials and consumers' adoption strategies by katrina

What is mobile payment? Mobile payment defined as the process of two parties exchanging financial value using a mobile device in return of goods and services. The purpose of using mobile device is as a wireless communication device, including mobile phones, PDAs, wireless tablets and mobile computers. Like SMS is viewed as the preferred channel for mobile money exchanges. For example, if a restaurant patron wanted to pay quickly and leave the restaurant on time to get to an appointment, the bill could be paid directly from the table without waiting for a server to bring the check. the patron would simply connect to the cash register with a wireless device, punch in the table number and bank personal identification number (PIN) and authorize payment. Its potentials and consumers' adoption strategies:-

• providing a new wave of financial convenience to the customers
• offering the customers the ease of carrying out the transaction via mobile device
• bringing value the customers by providing them with a secure and convenience way of making transaction.

  

  

Example of phishing and its prevention methods by katrina

A simple word to define phishing is theft. Actually, phishing is a technique used to gain personal information for purposes of identity theft, using fraudulent e-mail messages that appear to come from legitimate businesses. Normally, authentic-looking messages are designed to fool recipients in to divulging personal data such as account numbers and passwords, credit card numbers. Moreover, the method of deceits are using an IP address instead of a domain name, using a domain name that is very similar to the real one, copying the appearances of another website, misleading hyper link text, hiding the status bar text, and making everything a link. An example of HSBC Bank phishing e-mail Suggestion Prevention Methods:-

1. Visit www.identitytheftsecrets.com to see how a real phishing scheme work
2. Don't easily trust e-mail headers
3. Avoid filling forms in e-mail messages. You can't know certainty where the data will be sent and the information can make several stops on the way to the recipients
4. Never following directions asking you to reveal information or delete a file that is received in e-mail or pop-up messages from seemingly trusted companies
5. Verify the legitimacy of a web address with the company directly before submitting your personal information, if you click on a link in an e-mail message from a company
6. Securing computers before shopping online by keeping antivirus, antispam, and firewall software up-to-date

References: - http://banksafeonline.org.uk/examples/phishing_hsbc.html - www.privacyright.org/ar/phishing.htm - http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/Workshops/Intellectual/slides/stepp.pdf

A review on a post on Internet Security from My E-Commerce blog

According to the Symantec bi-annual Internet Security Threat Report, there are more than 100 millions of computer viruses are circulating now. Are public aware of this potential threats? I don’t think so. Based on the figure F-secure provided, the number of pieces of the malware detected in year 2007 was doubling increased than year 2006. A reason to explain this sharp increase of malware can be due to the cyber criminal who pump out malware to fool anti-virus programs which look for characteristics they have already seen. Most of the malicious programs detected by these security organizations are aimed at the various versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system. This problem cannot be ignored. Don’t ever think that you won’t be the next victim in this upgrowth technology era. Your negligence might bring you very serious consequences at any time, every minute. In my opinion, all these risks of being hacked or virus infected can actually be minimized. All we need to do is to install reliable anti-virus software and keep it updated, don’t accept the mails from strangers, constantly delete all the cookies in your computer and so on. Lastly, you must backup all your important data which is in your computer all the time. In the case of virus infected, which is unavoidable, we still can call up all the important data we needed. Reference: http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/2008/04/more-than-1-million-computer-viruses-in.html

How to safeguard our personal and financial data

1. Use a credit card with a small limit for mail-order and online purchases. It's all too easy for a dishonest sales clerk to use your credit card information. If the card you use for these purchases has a low credit limit, at least thieves won't be able to rack up many bills before hitting a wall.

2. Choose your PIN wisely. While you want to choose something you'll remember, you don't want it to be something that a clever thief could figure out just by learning your birth date or your child's name. A combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols will offer you more security.

3. Guard your Social Security number. Make sure that anyone asking for your Social Security number really needs it. Often businesses that ask for a Social Security number can use an alternative customer identification number if you ask. Make sure not to print your Social Security number on checks or in other highly visible places.

4. Protect your computer's security. Use as many tools as you can (anti-virus software, spyware, firewalls, and passwords) to guard your computer information from the nefarious. Failing to protect your computer is just as bad as leaving your door unlocked, your windows wide open, and a sign on the mat, saying, "Burglars, come on in."

5. Prepare for disaster. It's more important than ever to make sure you safeguard your family's important documents in case of a disaster.

• Keep a box of emergency supplies on hand that includes copies of your important documents in plastic bags.
• Purchase a fireproof safe for temporary protection of your valuables.
• Rent a safety deposit box for another set of your important papers. Consider choosing a location outside of your immediate vicinity, in case the disaster affects the entire community.
• Include in your important papers a copy of your household inventory, preferably with a videotape.

The threat of online security: How safe is your data? by katrina

Nowadays, threat of online security around the world in greater numbers than ever before such as virus attack, unauthorized access, theft of proprietary information, and denial of service(DOS)attack. All these attack action are targeting to overload the computers' resources in stealing credit card information, bank account passwords, and other personal information. Safety of our data in e-commerce are depended on:-

• Confidentiality

1. assurance of data privacy and accuracy
2. keeping private or sensitive information from being disclosed to unauthorized individuals, entities, or processes

• Integrity

1. assurance that stored data has not been modified without authorization
2. a message that was sent is the same message that was received

• Availability

1. assurance that access to data, the web site or the EC data service is timely, available , reliable and restricted to authorized users

• Authentication

1. assurance the real identity of an individual , computer, computer program or EC web site
2. verifies the sender of the message is who the person or organization claims to be in transmissionns
3. requires evidence in the form of credentials, which can take a variety of forms, including something known(e.g:password), something possessed(e.g:a smart card), or something unique(e.g:signature)

• Authorization

1. a process of determining what the authenticated entity is allowed to access and what operation it is allowed to perform

• Nonrepudiation

1. assurance that online customers or trading partners cannot falsely deny their purchase of transaction including providing:-

• (a.) the sender (customer) of data with proof of delivery
• (b.) the recipient (EC company) with proof of the sender's identity
• (C.) the protect and ensure trust in EC transaction with digital signatures are used to validate the sender and time stamp of the transaction so it cannot be later claimed that the transaction was unauthorized or invalid

Failure and causes of Kozmo.com by katrina

Kozmo.com was a venture-capital-driven online store and delivery service that promised fast, friendly and without delivery charged of anything from DVD rentals to Starbucks coffee in the United States. Kozmo.com well-known with the idea that you could order anything from it and get the delivery product in one hour with free of charged. The model targeted only large cities, especially New York and Boston. Items were delivered by employees with van, bikes or scooters. Unfortunately, it was failed and ran out of cash and as a result had closed on April 11, 2001. There were few causes that make Kozmo.com failed: 1. Targeted to wrong customers

kozmo's greatest error with their customers occured when they stopped catering to their main client based on middle class collage-students. This was done so that could target more upscale clients who would order expensive products. "Indeed, kozmo ditch its collage-student customers who bring many business (pay a premium to have thousand of items) from DVD players to cotton swabs.

2. Cost

kozmo offered free delivery and charged competitive prices to its customers. It thought customer loved the service but the cost of delivery and warehousing were too high. Somemore, the company had hired about 1,100 of employees and there was a "big" payment.

Identify and compare the revenue model for Google , Amazon.com , eBay

The revenue model for Google is advertising revenue mod Portals like Google have led the way in refining the advertising revenue model. The beauty of these revenue models is that from the advertiser’s perspective, they are far more targeted. Google are the company that provides a forum advertisement and receive fees from advertiser.

The sales revenue model is the company derives revenue by selling goods, information, or services to customers. For example, Amazon.com. Amazon.com is the electronic market place that sells products through internet. The revenue for Amazon.com is through their sales. Their Net income increased 30% to $143 million in the first quarter of 2008.

The Transaction fee revenue model is that company receives a fee for enabling or executing a transaction. For example eBays.com ( people can make online bids for items ).

Today, eBay, the world's largest online marketplace - where practically anyone can sell practically anything at any time. It's an idea that BusinessWeek once called "nothing less than a virtual, self-regulating global economy."

With a presence in 39 markets, including the U.S., and approximately 84 million active users worldwide, eBay has changed the face of Internet commerce. In 2007, the total value of sold items on eBay's trading platforms was nearly $60 billion. This means that eBay users worldwide trade more than $1,900 worth of goods on the site every second.

The benefit to consumers is clear: eBay provides an open trading platform where the market determines the value of items that are sold. Over the years, the site has become a cultural barometer of sorts, providing a view into what objects consumers want most at any time.

Since its initial public offering in 1998, the company has continued to innovate and connect people - and not just through its marketplaces. Two critical acquisitions have made eBay Inc. a global leader in online payments and communications as well.

The History and Evolution of E-commerce by Alex

There have been several key steps in the history of e-commerce. The first step came from the development of the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). EDI is a set of standards developed in the 1960’s to exchange business information and do electronic transactions. At first there was several different EDI formats that business could use, so companies still might not be able to interact with each other. However, in 1984 the ASC X12 standard became stable and reliable in transferring large amounts of transactions. The next major step occurred in 1992 when the Mosaic web-browser was made available, it was the first ‘point and click’ browser. The Mosaic browser was quickly adapted into a downloadable browser, Netscape, which allowed easier access to electronic commerce. The development of DSL was another key moment in the development to of e-commerce. DSL allowed quicker access and a persistent connection to the Internet. Christmas of 1998 was another major step in the development of e-commerce. AOL had sales of 1.2 billion over the 10 week holiday season from online sales. The development of Red Hat Linux was also another major step in electronic commerce growth. Linux gave users another choice in a platform other then Windows that was reliable and open-source. Microsoft faced with this competition needed to invest more in many things including electronic commerce. Napster was an online application used to share music files for free. This application was yet another major step in e-commerce. Many consumers used the site and were dictating what they wanted from the industry. A major merger, in early 2000, between AOL and Time Warner was another major push for electronic commerce. The merger, worth $350 million, brought together a major online company with a traditional company. In February 2000 hackers attacked some major players of e-commerce, including Yahoo, ebay and Amazon. In light of these attacks the need for improved security came to the forefront in the development of electronic commerce. It is predicted that revenues, up until 2006, will grow 40% to 50% yearly. Expectations of higher prices as well as larger profits for e-commerce business are also present. Also, we will see a larger presence by experienced traditional companies, such as Wal-Mart, on the Internet. It is believed companies in general will take this mixed strategy of having stores online and offline in order to be successful. It can be seen that there will be a large growth in Business-to-Consumer (B2C) e-commerce, which is online businesses selling to individual. However, even though B2C electronic commerce may be the most recognizable there are different varieties. Today the largest electronic commerce is Business-to-Business (B2B). Businesses involved in B2B sell their goods to other businesses. In 2001, this form of e-commerce had around $700 billion in transactions. Other varieties growing today include Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) where consumers sell to each other, for example through auction sites. Peer-to-Peer (P2P) is another form of e-commerce that allows users to share resources and files directly.

An Example of successful E-commerce -- Amazon.com by Regene

Amazon.com is the first online retailer of the Internet world. It was established in year 1999. Although there are quite a number of retailers try to imitate the way they run the business, however there are not as success as Amazon, and some of them even gone bankrupted. One of the major factors that leads Amazon became so successful is their marketing technique and expertise in relation to the market trends and demands of its customers. It is booming throughout the world of e-business with its wide range of books related to a variety of subjects and topics, committing a major source of income as well as also succeeded in marinating brand names. Amazon.com is one of the first commerce businesses to establish an affiliate marketing program and nowadays the company gets about 40% of its sales from affiliates and third party sellers who list and sell goods on the websites.

In addition, Amazon.com does not only leads to sale books but also offer a variety of electronic items as well as video, music, health and fitness, wireless cell phones, automobile, gifts, software, hardware, kitchen utensils and many more stuff. Moreover, the success of Amazon.com can be further explained by the nature of the electronic business. Running business online can make the company become more profitable and competitive by having lower operating costs.

Though the concept of electronic commerce is a new and still at its infant stage but it is growing faster and gaining more and more recognition. Amazon.com has gained benefits as well as economic profit with the recognition in e-commerce all over the world due to its strong organizational and effective team management strategies.

about katrina

My name is Wong Yee Mun or call me ah man. I am 22 year old. I am a local( KUALA LUMPUR) person but now i am staying in Sg Long with my dear classmate(Carmen and Cham). It is because i am studying in UTAR which is a Sungai Long campus. And i am lazy to travel back to my KL house everday. Somemore, the price of petrol was already increased. (">) I am studying Bachelor of Business Administration(HONS) Entrepreneurship in UTAR. Now i am in year 3 semester 1. There is another 2 more semester i have to study before i graduate in May 2009. My hobbies are jogging, reading magazines and meeting people from the internet. And recently i am interested in playing badminton. I am learning it from my friends and hope i can play it well soon. I usually jogging in the area around my condominium at least twice a week. The magazines that i like to read are those about fashion and beauty. Mmm...the top 5 website that i visit the most are: 1. http://www.yahoo.com/ ~is a quite good search engine to help me in searching information ~check mail 2. http://www.google.com/ ~is also one of the search engine to help me in searching information 3. http://www.friendster.com/ ~meet new friends ~share photo and blogs 4. http://www.sinchew.com/ ~a chinese e-newspaper that i also visit everyday 5. http://www.youtube.com/ ~ searching for interesting video to share with friends wish u and me always have a nice day and happy all the time (">)

Come On!!! Come to know me...Regene...

Let's me have a brief introduction about myself, before starting my 'blogging' journey. How are you all feel today? My surname is Tan or you can call me Regene. I am currently studying in UTAR, a Year three student, majoring in Entrepreneurship. My greatest hobbies are playing badminton and take care of my hamsters. As u can see the picture beside, they are my lovely hamster. They are cute, isn't it? haha...I have two hamsters and the species is Sapphire Winter White. I really like them a lots as it was a gift from my boyfriend. The top five websites that i visit often are:

1. www.viwawa.com. This is an entertainment website that provides some small games (such as Mahjong, Big2.5) for users to relax themselves during their free time.
2. www.hotmail.com I always visit this website for sending and receiving emails.
3. www.utar.edu.my This is the website that set-up by my University to have a access for student to check their results, timetable, and all the news.
4. www.google.com This is the most popular search engine that i always use for my assignments.
5. www.xunlei.com There are couples of latest movies, songs and softwares available in this website. It's free!! haha...

That's all about me, did u know me for more from this moment??? Wish you guys have a nice day...

About Alex

hihi, my name is Alex. I am in tutorial group 1. I had done my stpm before entered to UTAR. I had experienced a wonderful time in my form 6. At that time i had a chance to be the president of my school counseling club. Counseling club is a club that full of excitement. You can see how people behave in different situation. Our counseling club teacher had taught me a lot of things. Before this i scared to talk in front of crowd. But, my teacher kept giving me courages to talk in front of crowd. haha. It is really a memorable time. Alright, about the top 5 websites that i always visit are http://www.publicmutual.com.my/ , http://www.dailyfx.com.hk/ , http://www.yahoo.com/ , http://www.google.com/ , and http://www.interbankfx.com/ . I visit all this websites very frequent because these websites help me a lots. For example, yahoo and google help in searching the information , others help in the investment knowledges. I visit public mutual website frequently because i had invested money on the public mutual fund. Besides that i am also a public mutual agent so it will be my task to follow up the latest fund price and inform my customers. Forex is the investment that i started last year. It is an investment that will give a good return if it is well-managed. Next, erm.... the 5 internet activites... it should be MSN Messager , email , reading e-newspaper , searching for information like what I had said and watch online movies in the http://www.tom365.com/ . It is a good website that we can get a lot of free online movies. Ok . i think it is all about me ... hehe .. have a nice day...