Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Your Ewallet – 6 Things to Look For

When shopping online, an ewallet can make payments so much easier and more secure. Much like the wallet you carry in your pocket or pocket book, an ewallet carries your personal information, credit card and bank account information. You can shop anywhere online where your electronic wallet is supported. If you want to know if a given website supports your ewallet’s platform, just look for the company’s logo on the website and its checkout page.
One major benefit of an electronic wallet is that once you input your personal and payment information, you only have to do it once. After that, you just have to login to your account to make a payment. This speeds up the whole checkout process and prevents you from having to find your actual wallet to re-enter your credit card details for the umpteenth time.
They are also free to open and use, but sometimes receiving money into your ewallet from someone will come with a fee. But if you are just shopping, you don’t have to worry about that.

If you are in the market for a good ewallet, here are 6 things to look for:

  1. A far reach. Any good ewallet can be used in most countries worldwide and in a lot of online stores. The more stores the better so that you have as many options as you would in a mall, if not more. The whole point of shopping online is to shop around to get the best deal.
  2. Several currencies to choose from. Good ewallets support major currencies, such as the US and Canadian Dollar, Euro, British Pound, Japanese Yen and many more. This allows you to shop in stores that are not only operated in your own country but in other countries, hence providing you with a large variety of stores in which to shop. Note that foreign exchange fees apply, but a good ewallet will charge you fair market price which changes daily.
  3. Fast processing times. A good ewallet will get things done quickly. Credit card payments should be instant, as should payments directly from your electronic wallet which you may have funded by bank account or certified check sent by snail mail. Furthermore, fast processing times should extend to the time it takes to fund your ewallet by bank account; the faster the better.
  4. A wide variety of loading and withdrawal options. Loading your electronic wallet with money should be as flexible and easy as possible, and that means as many options as possible. A good ewallet will offer you the ability to deposit funds by bank transfer, bank wire, credit card and snail mail. Using a prepaid card through their platform should also be an option.
  5. Good customer support. You never know when you might run into problems, be them technical or merchant-related. A really good ewallet will have customer support available to you by phone and email so that you can sort out whatever issues you run into, and keep shopping.
  6. SSL encryption. Secure Sockets Layer encryption ensures that your personal information is encrypted when sent between servers. This prevents intercepting hackers from actually being able to see and use your personal information for their own use and benefit. This reduces the risk of theft and fraud.
This is not by any means an exhaustive list of qualities of a good ewallet, but it should point you in the right direction.
After searching online, you may already know that there are a lot of electronic wallets out there to choose from, so it’s important to explore your options. If you have found one that meets the above criteria, as well as any other criteria you may have, then sign up and start shopping with it.