Google Wallet: send money to anyone via Gmail

Is it easy to send an email? How about an option of sending money together with an email using just Google mail? Send funds to anyone having an email, even not necessarily gmail address.

Features of Google Wallet are constantly expanding. Now it is integrated with Gmail. It means that you can send funds to your friends and relatives who have email addresses fast and safe - even if they go not have Gmail accounts.

This option is free of charge is you send money from your bank account or from your Google Wallet balance. There is fee - 2,9% (min $ 0,30) - if you want to send money using your credit or debit card. This fee is charged from the sending customer only. If you are a receiver, you do not pay anything, regardless which method was chosen to send funds.

Google has also set limit for transactions. Currently they are the following: $10,000 transaction limit and $50,000 transaction limit for 5 day time frame. Limits may also be changed in future.

Identity Card Program by MasterCard in Nigeria

MasterCard plans to issue 13 million National Identity cards with capability of electronic payment. National ID Smart Card project is launched under National Identity Management System (NIMS). The project is the largest electronic payment solution rollout not only in Nigeria but on African continent in general.

In the first part of the program all Nigerians (16 years and older) and foreigners residing in Nigeria for more than 2 years will receive these multipurpose cards. Each card will have 13 applications. One of applications is going to be MasterCard prepaid technology. This feature enables cardholders with secure, convenient and reliable option of electronic payments.

Minister of Finance and Coordinative Minister of Economy in Nigeria seas sees strong potential of Identity Smart Card Program in shifting Nigeria to electronic platform. MasterCard was chosen as a partner in launch of Identity Smart Card, as it has earlier supported cashless initiatives in Nigeria. MasterCard has also has large experience in combining biometric protection with electronic payments. Their experience will be used for successful rollout of the project and its long term stability within the country.

Prepaid debit cards are gaining in popularity: here are reasons why

Rising trend in the sphere of noncash payments is prepaid debit card. Number of people preferring to use prepaid cards for making purchases and payments is constantly growing. Prepaid debit cards combine simplicity of cash and advantages of debit cards, opening broad possibilities for customers. In comparison to cash prepaid cards are more reliable and more convenient than cheques. Here are simple reasons more and more people choose prepaid cards.

You do not need to have bank account

The main difference between prepaid debit card and credit card is that you have no need to open and maintain bank account. If you would like to obtain credit card, it required additional credit check of the applicant. You also need to have good credit score. To have prepaid card you don’t need to pass additional exemination examination and check. You can buy prepaid debit card at retail stores.

Also in case of credit cards the issuer of the card (bank) decides which credit limit you will have. This is not very convenient if you need higher limit. For prepaid cards you decide how much money there will be.

Anonymous mobile payments from Amazon.com

It is widespread that entities use the Web to conduct payments. Usually information of both parties making “funds-commodity” exchange is shared. In some cases data can be personal or private and individual may want it to remain unknown to strangers. For those who do not want to disclose personal information (email address, cell phone number, name or other personal details) Amazon.com has patented anonymous mobile payments.

The idea of such anonymous payment system is simple. Participants, who would like to remain unknown, need to register with the system first. All operations will be performed using Amazon as a middleman. Both parties - buyer and seller - won’t have information about each other. Amazon (as middleman in transactions) will be the only entity having data on parties involved in transaction. Participants of this anonymous system will be issued temporary tokens, which expire once a transaction is done.

Protect your mobile device when shopping online

Consumers are more and more savvy and now shopping online using PC is already not enough for them. Mobile era has begun. When shopping online regardless which device to use you need to protect yourself from fraudsters and hackers. Especially it is of high value when you store a lot of persona and financial information on your mobile device.

Increase your mobile phone protection. It is recommended to set up password protection, auto-lock feature, encryption of your data (if this feature is available) for your mobile device. Some devices have the following feature - if you input wrong password several times in a row, all data is wiped off your device. It is highly secure and you can always restore all data if you synchronize your mobile device with computer. You can also install app enabling you to lock your device remotely and wipe off all data in case your phone is stolen or lost.

Create strong password for you easy to remember and for others hard to break. With auto-lock feature enabled it will be hard for others to get your personal details without knowing your password.

Smishing. Smishing is a method of stealing personal and financial information. It begins with sms tempting individual to share his / her personal information. The idea of smishing is similar to malicious emails, the difference is only that these are sms messages. You can receive messages like this: “(Name of well-known bank) confirmed that you have purchased tablet from “name of popular company). Visit this link (www.????.com) and if you didn’t make this purchase online”.