The application of pre-paid cash card for consumers.

Since is it almost necessary these days to pay for so many things with a credit card, it might make acquiring items and services through the internet or when you are not close to home hard when you do not have one. A debit card can be used similarly and are acknowledged the same places as credit cards, but you will have to have cash in your checking account to pay for the purchases that you make at the moment you scan the debit card.

The usefulness of a debit card may not be obvious at first, but when you use it to buy car fuel or other items and you realize that the money it cost is not going to come due with interest on your next credit card statement, and then you will experience a new feeling of power, the power of no debt.

It is certainly possible to keep yourself from purchasing things with the interest accumulating credit card and become more comfortable knowing you are getting along without going into dangerous debt.
Once you discover that it is smarter to pay as you go, and then you might discover that it is actually easier to save back a portion of the money you have been paying on credit card interest.

Financial advisers may suggest to you that if there is any interest money going someplace, it should be interest you are receiving from your money saved and not interest you pay others because of money you have already spent.

Visa plans to offer customers a prepaid cash card allowing travelers access to money at automated teller machines in 65 countries.

The VIP Visa prepaid cash card can pay the customers bills over the phone, low cost fees and that is online and offline access. Unlike traditional credit cards, the Visa® Prepaid Cash Card does not extend you credit. Instead, accounts are prepaid for a specific amount while still being backed by Visa® for universal acceptance. There is no line of credit and accounts are only good for the balance applied

According to data on online payment methods adopted for online train ticket booking, the share of cash cards has been steadily increasing over the last one year, while the share of credit cards has been slowly declining. From the total 16.27 lakh tickets booked online in September 2007, 22 per cent online payments were made using cash cards, according to Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) data.

Electronic Currency

In this century, many transactions are though by electronic currency. Electronic currency is most popular in the consumer mind, because electronic currency is easier acceptance by the consumer. Electronic money (also known as e-money, electronic cash, electronic currency, digital money, digital cash or digital currency) refers to money or scrip which is exchanged only electronically.

Typically, this involves use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems. Electronic Funds Transfer and direct deposit are examples of electronic money. Also, it is a collective term for financial cryptography and technologies enabling it.

Technically electronic or digital money is a representation, or a system of debits and credits, used (but not limited to this) to exchange value, within another system, or itself as a standalone system, online or offline. Also sometimes the term electronic money is used to refer to the provider itself.

A private currency may use gold to provide extra security, such as digital gold currency. An e-currency system may be fully backed by gold (like e-gold and c-gold), non-gold backed, or both gold and non-gold backed (like e-Bullion and Liberty Reserve). Also, some private organizations, such as the US military use private currencies such as Eagle Cash.Many systems will sell their electronic currency directly to the end user, such as PayPal and Web Money, but other systems, such as e-gold, sell only through third party digital currency exchangers.

In conclusion, with using electronic currency, it make our life became easy and not need have to keep a lot of money in the purse.

Credit Card Debts: Cause and Prevention

WHAT IS A CREDIT CARD?
Any card that may be used repeatedly to borrow money or buy products and services on credit. A credit card, such as VISA or MasterCard, allows you to pay for sales or services by borrowing against your line of credit with the credit card company and to make monthly payments on the outstanding balance. A charge card, such as American Express requires payment in full each month of the outstanding balance charged to the account.

Cause credit card debt
Poor money management : Do we really know where our money is going? Without money spending plan, you have no idea where your money is going. You may be spending unnecessarily each month.

Financial illiteracy - Many people don't understand how money works and grows, how to save and invest for a rainy day, or even why they should balance their checkbook.

Reduced or lost of income: A divorce, death of spouse or unemployment may cause a serious debts. If there is a huge gap between income and expenses, the easiest way to fill in the gap
with credit card debt.

Prevention method
Cut Up Your Cards
The best way to reduce credit card debt is to STOP using credit cards! There is no need to have more than one card, so pick the one with the lowest interest rate and cut up the rest. The one you keep should be deemed an “emergency card”. These are true emergencies, not mere inconveniences

Apply debit cards
Debit cards look like credit cards, but operate like cash or a personal check. While a credit card is a way to "pay later," a debit card is a way to "pay now." When you use a debit card, your money is quickly deducted from your checking or savings account. Therefore, you won get debt because over expense.

Control expense
create a budget and stick to it. A clear budget that includes all of your monthly bills, food, entertainment and miscellaneous expenses will prevent you from spending thoughtlessly and buying without thinking twice.

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies

Corporate blog is published and used by an organization to reach its organization goals.

According Wikipedia, there have three types of corporate blogs that is external blog, internal blog and CEO Blog. Internal blog is a weblog that any employee can view, it encourage employee participation, free discussion of issues, direct communication between various layers of organization and is a sense of community.

Examples of Internal Blog Applications
Purpose	Blogger	Tone
Corporate level communication	CEO, CIO, CFO, President	Formal
Project or contract level communication	Group/project leaders, department heads	Formal
Industry news and discussion	Individual employees	Formal or casual
Water cooler content	Individual employees	Informal and casual

External blogs is a publicly available weblog where company employees, teams, or spokesperson share their view, and it often used to announce new products or new services, to explain and clarify policies, or to react on public criticism on certain issue. It is very useful in company marketing communication, the marketer can asking the user for feedback, doing product testing or shows marketing plans to the customer through the blog.

The goals of an organization to start corporate blog are following:

·         Driving Sales - directly promoting products and services - for example announcing new products.

·         Public Relations - management of crisis situations, promoting company vision and developments etc

·         Customer Relations - fostering customer loyalty, building relationships with clients and customers etc

·         Research and Development - garnering feedback and suggestions from clients

·         Information and Education - giving customers information on how to use products

·         Internal Communications - password protected blogs for staff - for training, communications, work-shopping ideas etc

·         Community Development - developing client community around a product.

 

That is the reason of why we say corporate blog is a new marketing communication tool for companies. A successful corporate blog is allow companies to present accurate information without the filter of the media or advertising, provide some marketing information to the customer such as direction of how to use the product or what is the latest product of the company.

Marketing Nirvana has ranked the top 15 corporate blogs. Besides that, Debbieweil also summary the 8 tips for corporate blog in 2008:

1.      Use humor

2.      Write short. Less is more

3.      Post at least once a week

4.      Link to naysayers and competitors

5.      Appoint a blog editor

6.      Build redundancy into your approval process

7.      Consider joining the newly-formed blog council

8.      Just do it

 

But the blogger also need to careful to maintain their corporate blog. The blog will face failure if the executive who is responsible to write the blog isn’t fully committed and passionate. Seomoz.org has summarized the reason why corporate blogging fails:

√         Blogs vs. Corporate culture

√         Editorial Control Issues

√         Unfamiliarity with a Blog’s Structure

√         Misunderstanding Your Audience

√         Crafting a Corporate Voice, Rather than a Personal One

√         Attempting to “Sell” or “Market”

√         Domain & URL Issues