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

The advanced and powerful, modern technology allows us to foot the bill through the
payment
applications installed on our
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smartphones
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smart phones
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smartphones
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.
This
has become increasingly popular in many developed and developing countries.
This
essay will discuss how it benefits us and
also
how it could negatively impact us. Mobile payments allow us to make transactions at our fingertips, quite literally. All we need to do is tap our phone screen a few times and our payments are completed.
This
convenient process eliminates the need to use physical cards or cash which, in turn, gives us a lesser chance to get bacteria infection.
For example
, we are currently facing a pandemic where we have to keep our hands clean at all times possible. We usually have to touch the notes that have been handled by uncountable
people
beforehand or have to touch the buttons at the automatic teller machines to withdraw cash. With contactless
payment
, we only need to touch our own mobile phone.
This
definitely saves us from having unnecessary contact points with the virus and bacteria. Despite its fuss-free process, mobile
payment
could cost us money without our knowledge. As much as our technology has advanced, so have the methods of scammers, who usually use social engineering to cheat money from
people
. We have been seeing in the news almost daily about
people
who fell prey to
such
techniques and lost their hard-earned savings to the scammers.
For example
, some mobile
payment
applications require us to log in to the system to authorise the
payment
. While we are punching in our login credentials, malicious
people
could peek over our shoulders to note down our usernames and passwords. They could
then
impersonate using
this
information and spend our savings without us knowing. To sum up, even though payments through mobile phones could make us victims of scams if we are not careful enough, the convenience it brings for easy and contactless transactions benefits us much more.
Submitted by Wai on

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Answer the 'Advantages and Disadvantages' topic

IELTS advantages and disadvantages questions normally give you a statement and ask you to comment on the advantages and disadvantages of that statement.

Answer structure for the type of essay

  • Introduction
  • Body paragraph 1 – advantages
  • Body paragraph 2 – disadvantages
  • Conclusion

Examples to start your body paragraph:

  • The main advantage is...
  • The disadvantage of this...
  • The main benefit...
  • Despite these advantages...
  • One possible drawback...

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