Is Digital Money Evil?

Digital money is a generalized term used to call any type of money that uses electronic means of transactions. Electronic money transfers occur between computers through computer networks. Debit cards, Electronic Fund Transfer, ACH deposits are different types of digital money transfer.

Digital money is preferred by everyone because of convenience and the ease of use. Now days, you can make purchases online sitting at home and you can even transfer funds online to your family back home. Thanks to Digital Money, all these things won’t be possible without it.

The primary advantage of digital money is the quickness in processing. As human interaction is less, money transfers can be processed much quickly than before. This also means lower processing charges. Because of quickness in processing, now businesses can work more efficiently and sellers can ship items quickly. Overall, digital money is the key to economic growth world wide.

Why Digital Money is Evil?

The evilness of Digital Money is the result of its disadvantages. The disadvantages include fraud, failure of technology, privacy issues and loss of human interaction.

Digital Money Fraud - Just like any other method, Frauds can also happen to digital money. Your online web banking account may be hacked and fraudsters will be able to take your money away. There is also a chance that they will use your private information for more fraud. As everything is in digital form, it is very easy for hackers to retrieve this information when they manage to hack your online account.

Technical Failures - Another disadvantage of digital money is the technical issues. As digital money is heavily relying on computers and computer networks, any problem to them can result in failure of transactions. There are even cases, where bank accounts were vanished after a major hardware problem at the financial institution.

Privacy Issues – Privacy activists claim that banks are tracking you whenever you are withdrawing money from an ATM. It may be possible for them to identify your location by tracking back your ATM withdrawals. Every digital money user may not like this.

Riskier than Cash – It may be very costly to take digital money debit card with you. Suppose your card is stolen, then your entire bank account is at risk. On other hand, if your cash was stolen, you will only lose that much cash. There is no risk to your bank account.

Lack of Human Interaction – Sometimes, you may want to know about something that only humans can answer. For example, your recent ATM transaction might have gone wrong. You cannot ask ATM about this. You may have to contact the branch to investigate the issue. On other hand, if this was a problem with a teller, you could easily fix it before leaving the bank.

What you should do to make Digital Money your perfect buddy

Be Aware of the Limitation of Digital Money – By becoming aware of digital money limitations, you will be able to decide what you should do when something bad happens. For example, if your debit card is stolen you could contact your bank and ask them to block this card.

Check Your Bank Statements Frequently – Frauds and other problems can be corrected if you detect them early. Thus, always check your statements regularly, if you found any discrepancies contact your bank.

Do not Answer Unknown Mail – Fraudsters send messages claiming it is from the bank. When you check such messages, there is a great chance that your private information including online bank account details will be transferred. Thus, always ignore such messages claiming it to be from your bank. Actually banks never send such messages without prior informing you by other means.

Digital Money can be evil sometimes. But with proper care and precautions, you can make it your best friend. Make sure, you know its limitations and use safely for your needs.