4 min read
Are you ready to use your phone as your electronic wallet? You answer ‘Maybe’. Yes because you see the convenience, ease and simplicity offered by Mobile Payment Systems. No because you are worried about the security, reliability and lack of services especially if you are from the Middle East and Asia. Fret not for there is a solution to all your concerns.
Mobile Wallets: Easy, Convenient & Secure
The concept of mobile payments is taking the world by storm. For beginner’s users, mobile wallets allow you to make payments through your mobile phones, easily, conveniently and most securely. Make no mistake, the end of credit card is coming, quotes CNN.
The west is rapidly adapting to this new mode of payment, with significant 37% up tilt climb; and in the Middle East and Asia region, where certain services may not work, a new service allows you to pay for all of your purchases with your phone. So are you still hassled with this change? For you concerns on security, reliability and complexity, here are ten myth busters:
Top 10 Myth Mobile Payment Myths Exposed
1. NFC Payments are Insecure
Worried that the information stored on your phone may be stolen? Here are two pieces in technology that can put you at ease. First all data is transferred through encryption so the merchants cannot steal your data. Second, it uses pin code protection so only you have the key or password to your money.
2. If my Phone is Dead, I Cannot Make Payments Using NFC:
Wrong, you can still make payments if your phone’s battery is dead. This is possible because your credit card information is stored on a chip which has the ability to work even when phone is off.
3. Tampering with the Phone Accidentally can Lead to Loss of Your Money
The chip in your phone prevents accidental or intentional tampering and will deny unauthorized access.
4. Worried About Over Spending
This is where NFC gets real powerful. It not only transfers your amount to vendors and keeps your money safe; the applications using NFC can offer details of your shopping, your spending habits and patterns.
5. I Still Have to Carry My Wallet
Not really unless you want to have one signed by a celebrity. NFC uses RFID tags that not only allow you to make electronic payments but also stores information about saving coupons, gifts and loyalty card and applies them whenever payments are made. Check out how Christina Bonnington was able to live without her wallet for one month.
6. It’s Just My Credit Information
NFC uses RFID tags that allow you tap on names of restaurants and check their menu lists, name(s) of political campaigns and get all information about the politician etc. It is literally information in your hands.
7. It All About Payments
Yes but it has other benefits too. For instance, while we will never run of business cards, NFC chips have the ability to store information of your contacts so you can network fearlessly.
8. NFC must be very complex
Are you afraid that a technology as powerful as NFC will be complex to understand and install? Not quite so. All the service providers are easy to understand, install and manage.
9. Access Control
Who among us has not lost keys your office or house? NFC-enabled phones allow us to unlock our doors. With NFC, users simply wave their cellphone, instead of an access badge, at a reader, as a credential for access to labs, office, home or other secured areas.
10. Can apps gain access to my NFC and make unwanted purchases?
No, the NFC does not have access to any data on your phone. A hacker could hack your NFC chip password. But that is as far as the hacker could go. They would not be able to make any transactions as background security system must authorize transactions before they can be made.
