In today’s world there is always a great concern when it comes to the safety and security of your data and information. This is particularly true when it comes to your financial information as it can cause you so many problems and issues if something goes wrong and your information ends up in the wrong hands. Many people today face experiences of identity theft and fraud because they have had credit card numbers stolen at stores, pin numbers swiped at ATM machines, mail stolen from their mailbox or financial information taken from their computers. All of this has helped to forge the creation of new payment methods and ideas and the use of digital wallets as the new payment option has begun to come to the forefront.
What is a Digital Wallet?
You may have heard the term digital wallet before but have been unclear just what it is or what it means. Different companies may have slightly different definitions of what a digital wallet is, but the easiest way to think about it is that a digital wallet is some sort of software on your computer that gives you a secure place to store your financial information. Everything from your name and address to your credit card numbers and information and even your banking information can be stored here, much as in the same way that you might normally carry this information around in your wallet. The digital wallets are designed to make your online purchasing much easier so you do not have to constantly enter and re-enter information at websites, like credit card numbers, member ID numbers, address fields and so on. The digital wallets are also more secure as they typically keep your financial information encrypted on a hard drive, only pulling them out when you need to use them. This helps to make them safer from hackers, malware and keystroke tracking software designed to steal your information.
Digital Wallets in the Mobile World
With the proliferation of mobile devices today, digital wallets have also made their way into the mobile world through applications for your smartphone. The applications actually can do more than just simply store the information for you as a number of them now let you pay for items right through your cellphone so all you need to do is pull out your phone, open the digital wallet application and it talks directly to the software for the store you are in and transfers the money for you. One prominent application to work in this way today is Apple Pay, which is available at a number of retailers.
The future of digital wallets and digital payment options seems to coming quickly as more people turn to faster and more secure ways to pay for items both on the Internet and in physical stores. It is likely that you will see more advances made in this technology in the near future as the use and demand continues to grow to bring about safer ways to protect your financial information and more mobile payment options.