In many countries, paying for things using mobile phone (cellphone) apps is becoming increasing common. Does this development have more advantages or more disadvantages?

Mobile phones have become an essential component of everyone’s life. Nowadays, with the advent in mobile apps, more and more people are using mobile phones to conduct financial transactions

such

as bank transfers or simply, paying for

day

to

day

things.

This

essay will discuss why there are certain drawbacks with

this

new trend but why, ultimately,

this

phenomenon will continue to grow. Many would argue that paying through mobile phones is inherently a risky proposition.

Firstly

, cyber-crime is a real threat and hackers are constantly finding innovative ways to hack smartphones to steal credit card and other financial information.

Therefore

, relying on a device which is vulnerable to physical as well as financial theft, to make transactions is like opening a ‘Pandora’s box’.

For example

, increasingly OTP frauds are being reported where hackers capture someone’s bank details from their smartphone and easily get confirmation from phone owners by pretending to be bank officers, stealing one’s hard-earned money.

Additionally

, certain sections of the society

such

as old people and traditional neighbourhood shopkeepers find handling digital payments a cumbersome process due to their digital literacy. Despite many efforts by the government, encouraging adoption of mobiles phones as a wallet is an uphill task. These incidents will keep many people away from using their mobile phones as wallets.

However

, the ease of usage and native security of applications designed for mobile phones are factors which help propagate mobile phone’s use as a mode of payments. The convenience of not carrying a wallet is far too important to be ignored.

Moreover

, many applications have additional security built in to prevent unauthorized usage.

For instance

, during the current pandemic, when handling physical currency notes was risky, people relied on apps to pay for their

day

to

day

needs and the apps’ usage skyrocketed.

Also

, entering a one-time-password in apps to grant permission to pay, was not only handy but

also

secure for the users.

Therefore

, sufficient checks are in place for using these apps reliably. To sum up, the increasing popularity of digital payments will become pervasive across businesses and individual users.

This

essay discussed the drawbacks of

this

trend but highlighted the benefits associated as well. In my opinion, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages and

this

development is projected to grow in the long run.