Advantages and disadvantages of electronic payment systems

Posted on 6th Nov 2018

Article By: UniChange.me

In the Age of High Technology cash strives to endure the competition with electronic money, because more and more people prefer to have virtual wallets. We already provided you with the information on particular payment systems, in this article we will describe the general advantages of electronic payment system and its disadvantages.

It is clear, electronic payment systems have a range of pros in comparison to traditional banking services:

1. Time savings. Money transfer between virtual accounts usually takes a few minutes, while a wire transfer or a postal one may take several days. Also, you will not waste your time waiting in lines at a bank or post office.

2. Expenses control. Even if someone is eager to bring his disbursements under control, it is necessary to be patient enough to write down all the petty expenses, which often takes a large part of the total amount of disbursements. The virtual account contains the history of all transactions indicating the store and the amount you spent. And you can check it anytime you want. This advantage of electronic payment system is pretty important in this case. 

3. Reduced risk of loss and theft. You can not forget your virtual wallet somewhere and it can not be taken away by robbers. Although in cyberspace there are many scammers, in one of the previous articles we described in detail how to make your e-currency account secure. 

4. Low commissions. If you pay for internet service provider or a mobile account replenishment through the UPT (unattended payment terminal), you will encounter high fees. As for the electronic payment system: a fee of this kind of operations consists of 1% of the total amount, and this is a considerable advantage. 

5. User-friendly. Usually every service is designed to reach the widest possible audience, so it has the intuitively understandable user interface. In addition, there is always the opportunity to submit a question to a support team, which often works 24/7. Anyway you can always get an answer using the forums on the subject. 

5. Convenience. All the transfers can be performed at any time, anywhere. It's enough to have an access to the Internet. 

Having specified the well-known advantages of electronic payment system, it is necessary to mention its drawbacks:

1. Restrictions. Each payment system has its limits regarding the maximum amount in the account, the number of transactions per day and the amount of output. 

2. The risk of being hacked. If you follow the seсurity rules the threat is minimal, it can be compared to the risk of something like a robbery. The worse situation when the system of processing company has been broken, because it leads to the leak of personal data on cards and its owners. Even if the electronic payment system does not launch plastic cards, it can be involved in scandals regarding the Identity theft. 

3. The problem of transferring money between different payment systems. Usually the majority of electronic payment systems do not cooperate with each other. In this case, you have to use the services of e-currency exchange, and it can be time-consuming if you still do not have a trusted service for this purpose. Our article on how to choose the best e-currency exchanger greatly facilitates the search process. 

4. The lack of anonymity. The information about all the transactions, including the amount, time and recipient are stored in the database of the payment system. And it means the intelligence agency has an access to this information. You should decide whether it's bad or good. 

5. The necessity of Internet access. If Internet connection fails, you can not get to your online account. 

In general, the advantages of electronic payment system outweigh its disadvantages and they have bigger opportunities comparing with ones of traditional wire transfers.