Pay as You Go with Smartphones

Sixty years after the creation of the plastic credit card, big corporate names are backing a new wave of payments technology—a tap with a phone, rather than a swipe with a credit card. Pretty much every major bank, credit-card company, wireless network operator, and a good number of Silicon Valley players are exploring the cellphone as the next ubiquitous way to spend money. Efforts such as Google’s fledgling service, Google Wallet, which begins trials this summer in New York and San Francisco, are the culmination of a decade of arduous technology development and a multiparty, cross-industry battle over who will control the $20.5 trillion global market for in-store retail transactions. Also pushing their own digital wallets are, among others, PayPal division, and Isis, a venture of three large U.S. mobile phone carriers.

Should this technology take off, the cellphone could become the central repository of not just bank account information but coupons, loyalty points, and membership cards, allowing companies such as Google to route deals to cellphones at just the right time and place. “Ten years from now, a major portion of marketing is going to go through this personalized media channel,” says Mohammad Khan, who worked at credit-card terminal vendor before starting what is now a rival, ViVOtech.

If technologists such as Khan sound overconfident, it might be because they’re compensating for the fact that futuristic visions about new ways to pay have so rarely come true. Among the fields where humans have vigorously innovated throughout history, payments pretty much ranks near the bottom, well behind food cultivation, transportation, and online dating. There have been only a few major breakthroughs: the switch from barter to non-precious metal coins in Egypt around 700 BC, the move to paper money in China in 960 AD, and then to checks in the 12th century, courtesy of the Venetians. Credit cards, which emerged in the early 1950s first as dining cards in Manhattan before spreading more widely in the ’60s, introduced the era of electronic money and the idea of buying a completely unaffordable item and paying for it later.

Can I get cash using my credit card(citi bank mastercard) from an ...

1. Continuing from the above question, will my credit card work on any atm machines in the states? as long as the machine says mastercard?

2. Can I use any mastercard atm machine in south korea? will I be able to take out their cash currency which is Won? meaning, will I be able to take out cash using atm machine in korea?

3. If I buy clothes, or other goods in south korea, will they charge me in dollars? of course the price will be in Won, korean currency, but would they automatically convert it to dollars and charge me in dollars?

Please answer me in details! thanks! it’s so exciting to have a credit card!

Best answer:

Answer by annie

1) Yes, the Citibank card is usable at ATM’s with the Mastercard logo. My Citicard actually has a Cirrus logo, which is an interbank ATM network many banks use. Yours may have that too. In that case, you can probably use it at those ATM’s as well.

Just be sure you have the PIN for the card. Citibank allows you to set it online through http://www.accountonline.com/

2) Yes, your Citicard will function like a normal ATM card. You should have no problem taking out cash. Just be sure to call Citibank first and tell them that you will be out of the country so they don’t shut your card down in suspicion of fraud.

3) Yes, when you use the MasterCard in Korea, it will be charged in Korea in Won. Then it is converted into dollars per the current interbank exchange rate. My cardholder agreement, probably similar to yours in fees dictates that you are also subject to a 3% fee on foreign currency transactions.

So if you buy something for 96,000 Won, it will be first converted into $ 99.53 (assuming an exchange rate of 964.498 Won/Dollar) and then 3% is added to that for a final charge of $ 102.52.

I would watch out when withdrawing cash with credit cards though. You are subject to pretty steep interest rates. Use your ATM card instead and the credit card for cash emergencies if you can.

Good luck!

Using a credit card for cash withdrawals from bank machines is the worst thing you can do with a credit card. First of all, the bank machine owner will charge you a fee, from $ 1.50 to $ 2.50 per transaction. Second, MasterCard will start your interest clock immediately. There’s no grace period unlike when you buy things at stores. The best way to use the card is to buy things at stores or online and pay them off 100% within your grace period (usually 20 to 28 days from the moment of purchase). Also, remember that if you use more than 75% of the credit available on your MasterCard your credit score will suffer. So, if you have $ 500 available, try to stay under $ 375. In this way, you can avoid getting into financial trouble and keep your credit score high.

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