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The security issues about the credit card payment on line concern two issues, misused credit card and the security of the data transfer. The first and the foremost, according to the statistic of APACS in 2002, using fraudulently obtained card details to carry out telephone, mail order and Internet transactions, cost £95.7 million in 2001 in the UK. The customer has duty to take care of their card and PIN, which has been discussed above. The UK card industry has made available to merchants an address and card security code checking system to fight this type of fraud. A significant number of merchants are expected to adopt this scheme during 2002. Additionally, the security of the data and personal financial information transfer, from technical point of view, is much safer than what people worried about. This is because creating duplicates or leaking your details from a ''hand-roll'' machine, used in numerous retail stores is extremely simple. However, no duplicates are created by online payment due to the fact the electronic terminal of e-merchants merely verifies credit card details.
(ii) Direct debit payment
Difference with the other payment instrument to purchase goods or acquire service above, direct debits are the favoured way to pay most regular bills for both billers and personal customers. The customers agree with the billers the amount to be collected and the date of payment. From then on the amount will be deducted from customer’s account on a regular basis. The billers can only take the agreed amount, any changing have to notify the personal customer first.
For billers direct debit is a cost-effective means of collecting payment , on the other hand, for consumers, in addition to the lower cost, they are also a convenient method of budgeting. Over half of all personal sector regular bills were paid by direct debit in 2001. The number of regular bills is predicted to continue to increase due to population and household number growth and to a wider range and greater uptake of subscription technology services. For instance, more mobile phone users could move from pay-as-you-go packages onto monthly subscriptions. Businesses are also using direct debits more often to pay their regular bills such as utilities and leasing arrangements. Direct debit volumes are forecast to grow to 3.3 billion transactions in 2011 predicted by APACS. Over 25% of larger businesses are making more direct credit trade payments or using fewer cheques. Over 80% of adults in employment have their wages or salaries paid by direct credit and more than 90% of company and personal pensions are also paid that way.
Comparing with other means of payment, the direct debit is more security than others. First of all, there is little risk of the data and personal financial information of customer was misused by unauthorized third party. Secondly, billers using the Direct Debit Scheme go through a careful vetting process before they''re authorised, and are closely monitored by the banking industry. If money were to be drawn from personal customer’s account fraudulently, customer will be protected by the Direct Debit Guarantee, and would be entitled to an immediate refund from the branch of the amount paid.
CONCLUSION
The efficient non-cash means of payment, saving the cardholder the inconvenience of carrying large amounts of cash, are widely used in various types of transaction now, especially in retail payment environment. The trend in the volume of cash payments has been for a very gradual decline as migration to plastic cards and other automated methods have outweighed market growth. Cheques, as the most important non-cash payment instrument with more than 400-year history in the UK, have fallen since the culmination of 1990, the e-payment volume increased quickly for cost saving and convenience to use. However, cash is still the dominant payment method in volume terms. Nearly three in four of all personal payments are made by cash. The cashless society remains a distant vision.
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