Not in my life time! (Electronic Money)

Member Name: mykp

Product:	Electronic Money
Date:	21/03/02 (99 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: ease of use, can use nearly anywhere

Disadvantages: security, banking charges

So Electronic Money is a superb idea in principal and if it ever got off the ground then I'd be an advocate of this straight away.

I can see electronic money having good and bad points; let's start with the bad points. I like to be negative first!

Problem 1.
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In this world of ours there are several hundred countries most of these have their own currency. This leads to problems when you buy something in one country; you have to change money into the local currency. Now I can foresee that until we have a global currency this will always happen. Even when you buy with a credit card, the money you have spent is still converted back to your local currency when you get your bill. You are CHARGED for this by your credit card company or your bank depending on which type of card you have.

Now this for me will always remain as the banks are making a small fortune when ever we do this. Okay they don't make a fortune off you as an individual but from everybody as a whole.

So even though we have a form of electronic money now in credit cards this doesn't work.

Problem 2.
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Every shop would have to have some for of electronic money collection.

At the moment, there are quite a large percentage of high street shops that take Credit Cards and probably would take electronic money if a concept was finalized.

What happens though to the smaller retails outlets that cannot afford to take electronic money? This will require extra equipment and bank charges something the small business can ill afford.

Also what about the market stalls in every town around the UK, Europe and the World? How will they do business with electronic money?

Problem 3.
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Security. Okay the problem we have with cash is bad. Any one can steal cash and spend cash but with electronic money there would have to be some kind of safe guard against fraud. I persona
lly think that the current systems used by Credit Card companies are a joke and the checks that they do are very poor. The signature on the back of the card can be copied. If you're a good forger you already have the original to copy and practice on. How many times have you bought something and the shop assistant has never even checked the signature?

What about something like a thumb print? The technology for this is already available as Compaq use it on their high end servers as added security for system log on. This however throws open a whole can of worms regarding personal information. Everybody's thumb print is unique and the information would have to remain souly in the domain of the Credit Card/Banking system and not used by any third parties. The likelihood of this happening is virtually nil. Imagine being implicated in a crime as your thumb print just happened to be at the scene of a crime.

Other methods like retinal scans are just impractical to implement because of the equipment and logistical problems imposed by this technology.

The thought that somebody can just use you stolen card does always worry me, especially after I found out one of my cards had been used in Russia last year. I've never been there but my Credit Card number has!

Problem 4.
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Online banking is superb, no need to go down to your local town, find parking, pay for parking, stand in line, wait to be insulted by the most miserable bank teller on earth, etc? Just log on to the net, go to your banks web site and do your stuff over the web.

However, how do you pay money in? It's very difficult unless you actually go to the bank.

Even if you could with electronic money how do you do this if you don't have an internet connection?

Mobile phones? Forget that the technology is retarded in this country compared to others. Even if you could over your phone would you feel secure doing it? If yo
u can buy a scanner to decode encrypted police transmissions how easy would it be to do the same for phones?

What about a land line phone? Same problem, different technology and imagine punching number after number in to get to a service. ?Please press 1, if you require, etc?

The other problem with online banking is you will need some form of equipment to do it and you would have to buy this! Extra cost!

Problem 5.
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Speed, ever been stuck behind somebody paying by credit card in a supermarket. Imagine that in every shop in the world! Aaaaarrrggghh! What a nightmare. They would have to rename the planet from Earth to Queue.

Okay that's enough problems, what about advantages?

Advantage 1.
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As long as we continue to travel the globe both near and far then we will need money to buy sovereigns and goods along the way. The Credit Card is ideal for this (Apart from the problem listed in Problem 1) If your spending small amounts in different countries this is ideal as changing currency is expensive and highly inconvenient. Just paying with your card is the easiest way.

Advantage 2.
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Increased security. I know I have listed this as a problem as well, but even with the crappy security we have today, sign here! There is some semblance of security. This is not the same with money. Loose, have stolen or get mugged and kiss your money goodbye. Even with the lax security of today's card they are fairly secure and as time goes on I can only see this getting better. I'm sure there is some bright spark out there with an amazing idea for security which will please everybody and at the same time make fraud virtually impossible.

Advantage 3.
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Space. No not the black, atmosphere stuff, but the space taken up by currency. If you travel lots and you carry lots of different currency then you need a big chunky wallet.


So nothing quite has the feel of a fist full of cash, but if you have a pocket full of credit cards then they tend to take up less space than hard currency. If you've ever been to Turkey you'll know what I mean. 1.8 million Lira to the pound.

Advantage 4.
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Online banking. Okay it also has its problems, but if your in a rush or can't get to the bank its ideal. What other methods can you employ to pay a bill in the comfort of your own home? It does require a PC but you can use your credit card to pay for that!

Advantage 5.
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Ease of use. Also it's a problem as well. For some at least.


In short I cannot see the use of Pure Electronic Money in my life time. The banking system as it stands is not geared towards this. The security systems in place are inadequate to handle this, and society is unprepared to deal with no cash.

If the above could be changed, especially the banking system (Which is run to make money not for ease of use by us!) and there was a mechanism in place to allow funds to change hands quickly, easily, and cheaply whilst being secure I can see not reason why the use of cash could not be changed to electronic means. There is a massive problem with this happening on a global basis as not all of the world is as equally financially and technologically advanced.

Maybe one day? Who knows?

© copyright 2002, Mike Porter.

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