Nowadays, there are more and more stores which enabled electronic money as a way to pay for products or services, but for many of us, electronic money is still something new and is still a little bit untrustworthy and scary. Naturally there are some questions: What is electronic money? Is it safe is to use electronic money? Is such electronic money more convenient?

Today we are going to answer these questions so you can know everything and make an inform decision whether or not e-money is the right money for you!

What is electronic money?

Electronic money has all the characteristics of pure and cold cash – it is a legal way to pay for stuff, but these funds are immaterial. Electronic money is a digital equivalent of cash, of which information is maintained in a particular card or a server.

For this reason, the electronic money does not need a bank account. While paying with electronic money, you do not transfer them from one account to another, as, for example, paying with a bank card, because information is exchanged via the Internet.

Electronic money is acquired through an agreement with the publisher of electronic money after transferring the equivalent amount of money for the publisher. Also, you can always get your cash back, and publisher is legally obligated to pay you back everything in the same value.

Is it safe to use electronic money?

If we want to talk about the safety of electronic money, three are at least important aspects: protection against electronic money institution’s bankruptcy; physical security and cyber security.

Protection against bankruptcy. Electronic money is insured against the loss during the bankruptcy of an electronic money institution. Electronic payment law requires that electronic money institutions need to conclude an insurance contract or obtain a guarantee, as well as to protect the bearers of electronic money if the funds are lost. Thus, this approach is not worse than the security of money you keep in a bank account.

Physical security. Then we carry large amounts of cash we are always at a risk of losing them due to theft. Electronic money here have a definite advantage because they are protected by electronic means – PIN code or password. Therefore, if the thief wants to rob you, he needs to have a very particular kind of knowledge to break such security.

Electronic security. Information about electronic money is protected by electronic security measures to prevent illegal connection to your electronic payment account. Usually, national banks work as an electronic money institution supervisory authority to check the safety standards, before granting a license to issue such money.

Steal is still possible

Despite the security measures, there are still some chances to get robbed online. For example, a popular fraud scheme is a fictitious website that looks very similar to a payment’s institution page. Such false pages are analogous to the real ones, and people sometimes fill in all the information about their e-money accounts without hesitating the legacy of it. And this is how cyber criminals get your information.

Thus, you should really be careful while shopping online and better double check the website especially if it asks you information which is strictly personal.

How electronic money is more convenient?

Speed. The operation of transferring electronic money is performed immediately. Since during the process banks are not participating in the settlement as intermediaries, transferring of electronic money is executed as soon as the system checks your electronic money’s amount and legacy.

Smaller orders tariffs. According to publicly available information, an electronic payment system fees apply for international orders in the European Economic Area and international orders in other countries, are smaller than comparable bank charges!

Anonymity. As mentioned above, during the transferring of electronic money, the amount of electronic money and a legacy of it are checked. Meanwhile, data such as phone number (if you are paying via SMS) or a bank account linked data (like paying with cards or via electronic banking support) is not transmitted. Therefore, the use of electronic money guarantees anonymity and reduces the potential for unauthorized use of you personal data.

Now, since you know everything about e-money, it is time to get acquainted with stores and other tricks how you can save money while shopping online. The first thing we would like to recommend you are these ChameleonJohn’s promo and discount codes which ensure you big saving every time you shop online – no matter if with e-money or ordinary cash. So, embrace new technologies, perks of being a modern shopper and enjoy smart living!