The Application of Prepaid Cash Cards For Consumers

What is Pre-paid Cash Card?
Prepaid Cash Card is plastic card that consumers put money on the card, which they can do over the phone or online, and then consumers can use the card to make purchases or also online purchases. They can continually put money onto the card if they want, but they cannot spend more than the balance they have left. Prepaid cash cards are designed to be used as a safer alternative as compare to cash.

The Application of Prepaid Cash Cards

The prepaid cash card is very useful in several ways, such as payment of toll fare, public transportation, payment of parking services and so on. Nowadays so many people tend to have or already have their own prepaid cash cards because prepaid cash card is indeed a good invention that makes life easier, it contributed a lot in eliminating debt risk with no chance to spend too much as the balance is limited to the amount reloaded, and the convenience that it provide is indeed great. Different countries have the different use of prepaid cash cards.

Specialised Touch 'n Go lanes are provided at toll plazas in Malaysian Highways.

In Malaysia, the most popular prepaid cash card is Touch n’Go card. Touch 'n Go can be used in entire highways stretches in Malaysia with the familiar TnG & SmartTAG sign marked on the road. Besides that, Touch n’Go card can be use as an integrated ticket on the Public transportation system in KL, only 3 companies have implemented this into their collection system which are Rapid KL (rail and bus) KTM Komuter and KL Monorail. Touch n’Go card can also use in paying admission fees of theme parks such as Sunway Resort. It is not only for toll fare and theme park but also parking services and cashless payment at retail outlets. It is expanding its business to retail purchase by starting with fast food industry.

In Singapore, The EZ-Link card is a used for the payment of public transportation fares with limited use in the small payments retail sector. For paying transportation fees in the city-state 's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), Light Rail Transit (LRT) and public bus service. The card also serves as a supplementary identification and concession card for student in nationally recognised educational institutes, full-time national service personnel serving in the Singapore Armed Forces, Singapore Civil Defence Force and Singapore Police Force or senior citizens who are over sixty years old.

The CEPAS compliant Adult EZ-Link card, introduced in 2009.

The defaced EZ-Link card, revealing the internal circuits.

Octopus reader at an MTR tickets gate

In Hong Kong, The Octopus card is popular used for payment of Mass Transit Railway (MTR). The Octopus card system was the first contactless smart card system in the world and has since grown into a widely used payment system for virtually all public transport in Hong Kong. The Octopus card is a rechargeable contactless stored value smart card used to transfer electronic payments in online or offline systems. The Octopus card is also used for payment at convenience stores, supermarkets, fast-food restaurants, on-street parking meters, car parks, and other point-of-sale applications such as service stations and vending machines.

The rainbow-coloured Personalised card is available on registration. The name and, if opted, a photo of the holder are imprinted on the cards. They can function automatically as a Child, Adult, or Elder card by recognizing the cardholder's age stored on the card, hence accounting for different concessionary fares.

The security of prepaid cash card is reliable such as personal identification numbers (PINs) protect consumers against theft and fraud therefore the use of Prepaid Cash Cards is popularly acceptable by the most of people or even foreign countries.