Venezuela, where a hamburger is officially $170

CARACAS - If a visitor to Venezuela is unfortunate enough to pay for anything with a foreign credit card, the eye-watering cost might suggest they were in a city pricier than Tokyo or Zurich.

A hamburger sold for 1,700 Venezuelan bolivares is $170, or a 69,000-bolivar hotel room is $6,900 a night, based on the official rate of 10 bolivares for $1.

But of course no merchant is pricing at the official rate imposed under currency controls. It's the black market rate of 1,000 bolivares per dollar that's applied.

But for Venezuelans paid in hyperinflation-hit bolivares, and living in an economy relying on mostly imported goods or raw materials, conditions are unthinkably expensive.

Even for the middle class, most of it sliding into poverty, hamburgers and hotels are out-of-reach excesses.

"Everybody is knocked low," Michael Leal, a 34-year-old manager of an eyewear store in Caracas, told AFP. "We can't breathe."

Shuttered stores

In Chacao, a middle-class neighborhood in the capital, office workers lined up outside a nut store to buy the cheapest lunch they could afford. Nearby restaurants were all but empty.

Superficially it looked like the center of any other major Latin American city: skyscrapers, dense traffic, pedestrians in short sleeves bustling along the sidewalks.

But look closely and you can see the economic malaise. Many stores, particularly those that sold electronics, were shuttered.

"It's horrible now," said Marta Gonzalez, the 69-year-old manager of a corner beauty products store.

"Nobody is buying anything really. Just food," she said as a male customer used a debit card to pay for  a couple of razor blades.

A sign above the register said "We don't accept credit cards."

Lines for necessities

An upmarket shopping center nearby boasted a leafy rooftop terrace, a spacious Hard Rock cafe, chain stores for Zara, Swarovski and Armani Exchange.

They were all virtually deserted except for bored sales staff.

Instead a line of around 200 people was waiting patiently in front of a pharmacy.

They didn't know what for, exactly, just that the routine now was to line up for daily deliveries of one subsidized personal hygiene product or another -- toothpaste, for instance -- and grab their rationed amount before it ran out, usually within a couple of minutes.

"We do this every week. And we don't know what we're trying to buy," said Kevin Jaimes, a 21-year-old auto parts salesman waiting with his family.

"What's frustrating is when you get into a gigantic line but they run out before you get any."

The alternative then is to turn to black market merchants who sell goods at grossly inflated rates, often 100 times more than the subsidized price tag.

Jaimes lives with his family of seven, and tries to get by on a monthly salary of 35,000 bolivares -- in reality, around $35.

That sum is too paltry for him to even think about dropping into the cinema upstairs in the center, where tickets are 8,800 bolivares.

If somehow he could, he'd find the same sort of entertainment being shown in American multiplexes: "The Jungle Book," "Captain America: Civil War," and "Angry Birds."

But motion pictures and popcorn, while maybe an enticing diversion, are luxuries Venezuelans these days can ill afford.

source: interaksyon.com

Prepaid cards: Help for financially excluded or finance for terrorists?

PARIS - Prepaid payment cards were seen as a positive development, helping those excluded from the banking system and providing a convenient financial tool, but their use in the Paris terror attacks has revealed a troubling dark side.

The attackers used an anonymous prepaid card to rent hotel rooms outside Paris the night before the November 13 strikes that killed 130 people, according to Tracfin, the French body tasked with combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

It was a way to avoid being detected by intelligence agencies.

Prepaid cards have been one of the fastest growing segments of non-cash payments in recent years, and now authorities are concerned they may have become a tool that criminals use to keep their activities hidden and launder their funds.

Stamped with the Visa or MasterCard logo and protected with a PIN code, the cards allow users to withdraw funds at ATMs, as well as make purchases in stores and online.

However, unlike traditional debit cards, they must be charged in advance with funds.
They also don't bear a person's name, and if the amounts are not too large, no name is ever linked with the card.

In Europe it is currently possible to use without showing identification non-rechargeable cards for payments of up to 250 euros ($265) or up to 2,500 euros per year for rechargeable cards.

Benefits, gifts, wages

With online bill payments becoming more the norm, as well as the surge in online shopping, access to a payment card of some sort has become crucial in many countries. 

In the United States, they have become ubiquitous as many government benefits are now disbursed to prepaid cards. Some $148 billion was paid out that way last year according to the US Federal Reserve, although cards have to be registered to receive benefit payments.

And more and more US companies have begun issuing their employees prepaid cards to pay wages, thus cutting expenses related to using cheques and avoiding problems with workers who don't have a bank account.

Non-rechargeable cards have gained popularity as gift certificates, with companies also using them to entice or reward clients.

Volkswagen, for example, is offering US owners of its cars caught up in its emission cheating scandal a $500 prepaid Visa card.

In France, prepaid cards have found a niche with parents, as even minors can use them for payments.

"This allows parents to control the finances of their children," says France's Banque Postale, which has offered the cards since 2008.

A survey by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that a majority of low-income US users of prepaid cards also saw them as a means to control their spending, and avoid stiff overdraft fees that banks charge on traditional cards.

It is hard to say just how popular the cards have become in Europe as authorities don't break out payments by debit or prepaid cards.

However, a 2014 survey by the Bank of Italy found that nearly 17 percent of households had used prepaid cards, or about one in four that used payment cards.

Consulting firm CapGemini, in its latest publicly available report on the sector, estimated that prepaid cards accounted for 11.4 billion transactions worldwide in 2012, or nearly 4 percent of the total.

Untraceable

When issued by banks in Europe, the prepaid cards are usually linked to a bank account, thus making recharging convenient and ensuring transactions are traceable.

But EU directives aiming to boost competition opened up the sector to firms outside the banking sector, and 48 were registered, for instance, at the end of 2014 in France.

These companies have been behind the mushrooming of prepaid cards for sale in supermarkets and newsagents.

Available to anyone at least 18 years of age, some of these cards can be recharged with cash at newsagents and used to make transfers abroad.

And all that without having to show an ID.

That is why Bruno Dalles, the head of Tracfin, the French body tasked with combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, said this past week he would seek to have prepaid card transactions "appear on our radar".

Anonymous prepaid cards "are used in the underground economy, in organised crime," said Dalles. "It is a tool which replaces cash, which is very discrete, untraceable. That is something we need to change."

French authorities have said they plan to reduce the amounts that cards may be charged with before identification becomes mandatory by decree early in 2016.

But if authorities want to fully eliminate the risk of their use by extremist groups,  "...identification should be needed from the first euro", said Frederic Jeannin, chief executive of Ticket Surf, a firm which provides online payment services.

He believes that part of the problem is that firms operating throughout Europe are only monitored in their home base.

Another is that prepaid card issuers also have no idea what the card is used for. When a charge comes through, the issuer sees only the merchant's bank.

Ticket Surf works directly with websites, which means they can monitor payments and shut off sites they suspect to be laundering money.

"It is important to have financial regulations but it is also important that financial institutions pay attention," said Jeannin.

source: interaksyon.com

Debit card issuers told to put in place safeguards against fraud

MANILA - Monetary authorities have ordered banks that issue ATM debit cards to protect their clients from fraud by adopting the Europay Mastercard Visa (EMV) chip-enabled technology.

In a statement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said its Monetary Board has issued a circular containing the guidelines for dropping magnetic strip technology in favor of the more secure EMV chip for ATM debit and prepaid cards.

Credit and ATM cards that rely on the magnetic strip have been susceptible to fraud schemes, including card skimming. In light of this, the BSP had ordered credit card issuers to migrate to the EMV chip technology no later than January 1, 2017.

The recently approved guidelines pertain to proprietary debit cards as well as to cash advance transactions of credit cards made through ATMs. The BSP's latest rules however don't prevent issuers of co-branded cards from adopting safeguards laid down by international payment networks, as in the case of a local bank issuing a debit card whose transactions are accepted by the Mastercard or Visa payment system.

BSP said its latest guidelines are meant to manage risks while the banking system shifts to the EMV chip-enabled technology without disrupting ATM and point-of-sale transactions.

Monetary authorities have given covered banks 60 days from the date of the latest circular to submit their updated EMV migration plans.

source: interaksyon.com

From robbers to vendors, Swedes brace for cashless future

STOCKHOLM — Peter, 55 years old and homeless, is standing at a Stockholm supermarket, carrying the two objects that help him make a living: a stack of magazines and a debit card reader.

The magazine, Situation Stockholm, is sold by the poor to bring in some income, but for Peter and many other vendors the problem in recent years has been that cash is falling out of use, and passers-by often don’t have 50 kronor (5.70 euros, $7.80) at the ready to buy a copy.

The card reader, provided by the magazine’s publishers, has come to the rescue, and Peter, who asked not to be identified by his last name, couldn’t be happier.

“Customers can follow every step so that they don’t feel cheated,” he said, showing the functions of the device. “I’m impressed by this thing. It’s cool.”

Mattias Stroemberg, a potential customer taking a look at Peter’s magazines, welcomed the opportunity to pay with cards: “I never carry cash around. No one does anymore.”

In Sweden, only 27 percent of retail sales are made with cash, according to a recent paper by the European Central Bank. If online sales were included, the figure would be even smaller.

All the Nordic countries are rapidly on the way towards a cashless society, deepening an existing divide between north and south in Europe. In Greece and Romania, for example, 95 percent of transactions are still in cash.

Not everyone in Sweden cheers the transition. In a celebrated case, a would-be robber entered a Stockholm bank, but had to leave empty-handed, discovering that he had picked a cashless bank.

Criminals are not the only ones affected. From Copenhagen to Reykjavik, the cashless society has profoundly changed the ways people live.

Everything from hot dogs to taxes is paid for online, with bank cards, or by SMS. Many buses refuse cash — confounding foreign tourists — and the newly opened ABBA Museum in the Swedish capital also only accepts credit and debit cards.

“Neither retailers nor banks have any obligation to accept cash,” according to the nation’s central bank, the Riksbank.

‘A society where cash is reduced to a minimum’

“We’ll probably not see a totally cashless society in the near future, but a society where cash is reduced to a minimum and used in very few situations, is probably quite realistic,” said Niklas Arvidsson, a researcher at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, who published a study on the topic earlier this year.

The big winners are the banks and card companies, but in the end, all of society could benefit as cash is more expensive to handle than electronic payments, he said.

But the elderly and rural citizens, as well as the socially marginalised with high credit risk such as the long-term unemployed, would have problems if cash disappeared completely, he argued.

“If our society goes in this direction, that you basically can’t do anything at all without access to debit or credit cards … it might even create further marginalisation and exclusion,” said Leif Oeberg, development director at the Swedish Salvation Army, which offers support to people in need.

“The absolute and almost immediate effect … is that you can’t travel by bus. What we see at the other end of the spectrum is that the most marginalised get around on foot … or travel (by metro) without a ticket, but you can’t do that on the bus. That is the stark reality for people today,” he added.

There exists an alternative — pre-paid debit cards that people can later recharge at convenience stores, but with a minimum of 200 kronor (22 euros, $30) even this can pose difficulties.

Arvidsson also warned that consumers’ rights might be at risk as the electronic trail every card user leaves behind could be misused for marketing purposes.

“There is a concern that today’s laws are insufficient,” said Arvidsson. “The authorities must ensure that the information is used correctly.”

Other losers in the cashless game are smaller shops struggling with high card fees, especially after Sweden implemented a new law in 2010 that banned imposing surcharges on customers for paying with cards.

That means the retailers themselves must deal with the fees to the card-issuing companies — up to 2.50 kronor per transaction, plus an additional percentage fee.

Since 70 percent of all retail transactions in Sweden are by card, both debit and credit, it adds up to a sizable sum.

Retailers include the fee in the prices of their products, but for smaller shops it’s a problem because they don’t have the economies of scale and thus have a hard time keeping prices low.

For reasons such as these, Swedish money is not about to go completely virtual.

The Riksbank, which having been founded in 1668 is one of the world’s oldest central banks, still plans to launch new banknotes and coins in 2015.

“We believe cash will continue to exist in the near future. We can’t foresee it disappearing completely,” said Christina Wejshammar, head of the banknotes and coins division at the Riksbank. “It all depends on how we act as consumers.”

source: interaksyon.com

Convenient wallet case for iPhone 5

A durable case that delivers device protection in a smart design, which also features a built-in wallet sleeve for up to three cards and cash. This updated version of  CM4’s Q Card Case is the thinnest yet and comes in classic Black Onyx and Pacific Green, as well as two new colors: Red Rouge and Mahogany Brown.

The iPhone 5 version was specially crafted to fit the new Lightning dock adapter so that users can continue to use their 30 pin accessories. The Q Card Case is an ideal solution for savvy travelers, people on the go, and anyone looking to slim their pockets and purses for a night on the town.


The case is made from soft-touch rubber and a premium fabric wallet sleeve that fits an ID, credit or debit card, and some cash. As a result, the case features a lightweight but secure fit around the iPhone 5. A protective front bezel with lay-flat Screen Guard design provides an added defense for the iPhone screen.

The case is carefully designed to align perfectly with the iPhone 5’s control buttons to maintain full use of the Apple smartphone, adding less than 4.5mm to the already slim device and maintains access and interaction with all the phone’s functions. Available at cm4.com

source: interaksyon.com

Myanmar Goes Plastic With First Debit Cards

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar launched its first debit cards on Friday, giving customers the chance to use plastic for shopping, dining and travel for the first time in the latest leap forward for its cash-dominated economy.

The central bank announced the formation of the Myanmar Payment Union (MPU), in cooperation with 17 banks, which will let customers take out cash from any ATM machine nationwide and make payments in a small number of shops, restaurants and offices.

"Now we still have a cash society, but we're heading towards a cashless one," Ye Min Oo, secretary of the MPU, said at the launch in the commercial capital, Yangon.

Debit and credit cards have been available for years in most neighboring countries but the arrival of plastic in Myanmar is a significant step for an economy lumbered with an antiquated banking system after decades of Western sanctions and disastrous fiscal policies under a military regime.

Even ATM machines were virtually unheard of in Myanmar a year ago, when cash had to be used for almost every transaction.

The military regime gave way in March 2011 to a quasi-civilian government under President Thein Sein, who has introduced a series of political and economic reforms.

These have included the introduction of a managed float of the kyat currency in April this year, when a system of multiple exchange rates began to be dismantled.

ATM cards were launched this year, but holders were only able to use the machines of their own bank.

Plans are in place to offer credit cards in coming months after MasterCard Inc reached an agreement with Co-Operative Bank Limited, which has 24 ATMs, to issue the country's first branded cards.

Foreign banks are still not allowed to offer banking services in Myanmar. A growing number have opened representative offices.

Use of the new debit cards will be restricted at first to 14 places in Yangon, including shopping malls, airline offices, computer shops, one hotel and two restaurants.

Withdrawals from ATM machines will be limited to 1 million kyat ($1,152) per day, the central bank said.

(Reporting by Thu Rein Hlaing; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Alan Raybould and Robert Birsel)

source: nytimes.com

Why a Prepaid Debit Card and Not a Credit Card?

Prepaid debit cards are a good alternative to credit cards for anyone who is trying to control their spending. A prepaid debit card allows a consumer to deposit their money into a virtual account that can be accessed through a debit card. Once the funds are depleted, the consumer cannot spend anymore.






Unlike a credit card, a prepaid debit card does not allow a consumer to spend money he or she doesn’t have. This prevents the consumer from racking up debt that he or she cannot pay off. Additionally, there is no interest charged on a prepaid card, and no bills to pay at the end of the month.

All these make the prepaid debit card a more responsible tool for budgeting and spending money, at least compared to a credit card.

In addition to controlling spending, many people like to use prepaid debit cards to send money abroad or give a gift to a relative or friend. Since these cards are easy to load and mail, they are ideal for people who need to send money abroad. In fact, they are safer than sending cash or checks through the mail, since many cards are able to be re-issued if the proper paperwork is kept. These debit cards can be used in many countries. A Visa debit card is particularly convenient since it can be used at thousands of stores and restaurants that also accept a Visa credit card.

Unlike credit cards, debit cards do not charge interest, but there are a few fees involved with using them. Just like a checking account at the bank, most prepaid cards will charge a maintenance fee once a month, as well as a small transaction fee when the card is used. Prepaid cards such as a Visa debit card do this in order to recoup their costs for issuing the cards and transferring the money from the card to the merchant or to other accounts. However, these payment and transfer fees are very low compared to those charged by banks for similar transactions.

All in all, prepaid debit cards are a great way to control spending through the holiday season, an excellent alternative to a high fee checking account, and an inexpensive way to transfer money to relatives and friends abroad.

24/7 Card is the all-new prepaid Visa debit card and remit card available for Filipinos and immigrants living and working in the United States to send money to Philippines.

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