The traditional leather wallet is your stalwart companion for safekeeping precious possessions of all kinds. It holds tightly your cash, credit cards, family pictures, driver's license, insurance identification, shopping loyalty cards and more. Alas, your wallet grows thicker and more unwieldy by the day; your spine shrieks every time you sit on it the wrong way.
Oh, and it's entirely unsecure. Any crook that gets his hot little hands on your wallet can easily blow all of your cash and possibly wring your credit accounts dry, too. In spite of that fact, 85 percent of transactions across the globe are still based on cash and checks. Americans alone wrote around 14 billion checks in 2009
To combat theft, simplify your finances, avoid being the "check-writing guy" in line at the store and maybe even ward off trips to the chiropractor, perhaps it's time for a wallet upgrade. For that, you might consider the digital wallet.
Before we go any further, understand that the term digital wallet is a blanket descriptor for a range of technologies that let you perform many tasks. In general, though, a digital wallet (also sometimes called an e-wallet) is a transformation in the way you pay for things.
Many digital wallet services work through apps on your smartphone. At the supermarket, for instance, you might simply tap your phone to a compatible check-out register to pay instantly. For others, all you need to use them is something you know, such as your mobile phone number and a PIN (personal identification number).
No matter what form it takes, a digital wallet is based on encryption software that substitutes for your old, analog wallet during monetary transactions. You benefit from the protection and convenience. Merchants benefit because they're more protected against fraud and they sell more products, faster.
A smartphone digital wallet will help you pay for stuff, but it will also store your concert tickets, bus and subway passes and gift cards. Retailers will reward your loyalty by offering instant freebies, discounts and coupons. Your digital wallet might even unlock the doors to your house.
A digital wallet could alter the way you organize your finances and your life in general.
We can lump the types of digital wallets into two broad categories:client-sideand server-side. Within both categories are wallets that function only with specific vendors (either online or offline) and others that will work with just about any merchant.
Client-side wallets generally refer to those maintained by you, the end user. You download and install a program and then enter all of your pertinent payment and shipping information, all of which is stored on your own personal computer. Then, when you decide to check out at a compatible Web site, your wallet's software completes most of the basic information so you don't have to. Suddenly, your impulsive online shopping sprees get much faster and much, much more expensive.
Contrast that with server-side wallets; for example, Visa's V.me digital wallet. Instead of storing data to your own hard drive, all of your wallet data is stored and maintained by Visa on the company's secure computers.
Visit a V.me-supported retail site, and your checkout process is extremely quick. Just type your personal V.me e-mail address and password, and the order is complete. The store receives payment from whichever credit card account you choose, and you're spared the frustration of typing that information. You're also shielded from any security risks associated with revealing your card number online.
A V.me account, like most other digital wallets, works with more than just your Visa card. It actually lets you store data for your other cards and bank accounts, too, such as MasterCard, Discovery and more. Additionally, V.me retains shipping information.
In a server-side wallet, the company supporting the digital wallet (Visa) maintains your e-wallet account on their servers. You don't have any physical plastic cards to lose, nor can anyone steal them, which is a benefit to both you and the retailer, which would otherwise expect to deal with a significant amount of credit card fraud.
Merchants generally prefer server-side wallets because they have a greater degree of standardization. Client-side software, on the other hand, varies depending on the developer, and differences can result in frustrations for both buyers and sellers, which is why server-side wallets are gaining more steam.
Paying at home is one thing; paying on the go is quite another.
Source: Howstuffworks
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