Electronic wallet
Electronic purses (English: Electronic Purses, Intersector Electronic Purse - IEP for short) enable cashless offline payments, mostly without a PIN, for small amounts of money using chip cards . They were introduced in 1995 when chips were added to payment cards in addition to magnetic stripes . Electronic wallets can be attached to all plastic cards with suitable chips.
The electronic wallet must be distinguished from so-called cyber wallets (also known as e-wallets ), which are used for payments on the Internet and are not tied to a material carrier (card).
functionality
An electronic wallet works according to the "Pay Before" mode, the underlying payment method is called the "prepaid payment method". First, they are charged at a charging terminal with an amount of money. Only then can cashless payments be made with the help of payment terminals. Load amounts are credited to a pool account, payment amounts are debited to the pool account. However, this is only possible if there is a credit available; otherwise you will need to recharge it beforehand. In this way, smaller amounts in particular can be paid quickly and easily, without the need for every acceptance point to be constantly connected.
International overview
Electronic wallets are mostly available as joint products of the respective financial institutions in many countries - also in Germany ( GeldKarte and girogo ), Austria ( Quick ) and Switzerland ( Cash ). These products are three different technological systems that are not compatible with each other. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the electronic wallets are primarily on the bank's current account debit cards . “Pure” electronic wallet cards ( white cards ) are also offered.
In the absence of international specifications and standards, there is now a systematic growth in addition to the three electronic wallets mentioned in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Because of the variety of systems and the resulting incompatibility, cross-border transactions are usually not possible and therefore not provided for. A large number of card systems have not been able to establish themselves on the market and have been discontinued. One example is the German PayCard .
- Belgium: Proton
- Finland: Avant
- France: Moneo (1999-2015)
- Hong Kong: Octopus Card
- Italy: Minipay
- Japan: Two competing systems, both contactless and also integrable in the mobile phone - Suica and Edy
- Luxembourg: Minicash
- Netherlands: Chipknip (1998-2014)
- Austria: Quick (1996-2017)
- Portugal: MEP
- Sweden: Cash (1997-2004)
- Switzerland: Cash (1996-2013)
- Spain: Monedero 4B
- Taiwan: Easycard
- International: Mondex, Visa Cash
See also
Payment method studies
- Markus Breitschaft, Thomas Krabichler, Ernst Stahl, Georg Wittmann: Secure payment methods for e-government. In: Federal Office for Security in Information Technology (Ed.): E-Government-Handbuch. Bundesanzeiger Verlag, Cologne 2004. Updated version May 2005, ISBN 3-89817-180-9 , study as a PDF download from the BSI ( Memento from January 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ).
- Ernst Stahl, Thomas Krabichler, Markus Breitschaft, Georg Wittmann: Payment processing on the Internet. Importance, status quo and future challenges. IBI Research, Regensburg 2006, ISBN 3-937195-12-2 , details on the study and management summary as PDF .
Web links
- Study of payment processing on the Internet: importance, status quo and future challenges
- Secure payment methods for e-government: e-government manual ( Memento from January 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 1.12 MB)
- www.GeldKarte.de: information portal about the purse of banks and savings banks; with information on additional applications
- www.girogo.de: Information portal about the purse of banks and savings banks, which has been further developed since 2012; with information on additional applications