Electronic Money
Contributor: Shafira Alifiana Elmira
Electronic money is one of the money that nowadays people used as payment ways in daily life. Electronic money only exists in digital format and the transaction used computer network like the internet or smart card that has a stored value. We called this as electronic cash, e-money, digital money, digital cash, or digital currency. The technology of digital money has a big potential for replacing coin or paper money in circulation now into a cashless society. Technology information system and financial are now integrated, people become familiar with digital money especially the youth or we called the generation z, many young people who have switched from cash to cashless. The advantage of using electronic money besides being practical, when transacting is also considered faster than using cash. Indonesian bank (BI) reports showing that the use of electronic money until quarter-1 2018 increased by 361 percent on an annual basis and the transaction reached Rp. 4 trillion.
There is electronic forms of money:
Bank: Mandiri (E-money), BCA (Flazz), BRI (Brizzi), Sakuku, BNI (Tapcash)
Telecommunication Provider: (LinkAja) T-Cash, XL Tunai, Dompetku
Others: Go-Pay, OVO, Dana, Doku Wallet, PayTren.
1. Service provider:
Physical Cards: e-money, Flazz, Brizzi, Sakuku, etc.
Server Base (E-wallet): Go-Pay, OVO, Funds, Doku Wallet, etc.
2. Form of electronic money:
Both forms of electronic money have their respective strengths and weaknesses. If electronic money is in the form of a physical card, the practical advantages are only tap in on the payment machine, but the disadvantage is that physical electronic money cards cannot be blocked so if the card is lost and changes hands, the available balance can easily be lost. For electronic money in the form of server base, the advantage is balanced security can be guaranteed because every transaction to access it must use a smartphone and need a password for each transaction. And if the smartphone is lost, the balance will not disappear immediately. However, the weakness requires a good internet connection and signal.
Electronic money are may not be something strange to our ears, because now in Indonesia itself electronic money has a crucial function that people must use it in daily life. For example, we can see now that Indonesia’s highway is requiring the driver to have electronic money to be used in the gate so they pay the highways fees with a smart card that has balance. This smart card we called it e-toll or e-money.
With the enactment of the mandatory use of the e-toll card, it has many benefits. One of them is practical, no need to queue long and wait for the return, because you don't need to pay using cash, just tap in and tap out on the e-toll machine. More sophisticated, there’s e-toll pass which transmitter device named On-Board Unit (OBU) that placed in the front dashboard or stick it in the front mirror of the car whether in the right, center or left side. And indeed you don't have to bother opening the window just to pause the car a moment then the OBU engine will ring and the toll gate will open automatically.
Not only used to pay the highways fees but electronic money now is so popular in Indonesia from the public transportation such as TransJakarta now is required to use e-money card to get in the busways, Commuterline or we usually called KRL is also using electronic money. And to get the card such as Flazz, E-money card is easy you can buy it in the Bank itself or in the retail merchandise such as Indomaret, Alfamart. For top up also easier, we can top up through ATM, Merchants, E-banking, etc.
Beside transportation, electronic money also now we can use it to pay the foods in some restaurant, merchants such as Alfamart, even in the modern market to buy groceries, fruits, households you can just scan the barcode and pay through electronic money such as Go-Pay, OVO, etc. These are the proof that Indonesia is heading towards a cashless society era.
