We Asked Malaysian Bloggers For Financial Management Tips For Couples!

• By CompareHero.my
• April 21, 2016

Managing your own personal finances can already be quite the challenge – much less when you’re in a relationship and both of you need to juggle your finances together. (more…)

Pelan Internet Terbaik Bawah RM100

• By CompareHero.my

Kami telah kumpulkan pelan internet terbaik di Malaysia berharga bawah RM100 supaya anda boleh nikmati lebih banyak penjimatan. Ketahui pelan internet yang sesuai dengan pengunaan anda. Kami juga sertakan kelebihan dan kekurangan setiap pelan untuk memudahkan anda membuat keputusan! (more…)

Bitcoin Debit Cards: An Introduction to Malaysians

• By CompareHero.my
• April 18, 2016

You have heard about bitcoin, but have you heard about bitcoin debit cards?

Chances are, you have not. Bitcoin debit cards are a relatively new financial tool, designed as a solution primarily for the Bitcoin community as a way to easily spend bitcoin. The bitcoin community is limited to only thousands of shops around the world that accept bitcoin as payment. In Malaysia, only a handful of shops accept bitcoin – like this cafe and this VPN service. The bitcoin debit card solves this problem, as the Visa or MasterCard-linked cards are almost universally accepted at millions of places around the world.

Like many financial innovations, bitcoin debit cards started off from a small community of early adopters. As bitcoin became widespread, more people and financial institutions realised the potential of blockchain-based finance, and thus bitcoin debit cards are becoming popular among mainstream users. It turns out that bitcoin debit cards can offer many advantages over the standard bank-issued debit cards. Here are some of its advantages!

Note: Different bitcoin debit card products may have different features than the advantages listed here. This article was based on the Wirex card, which the author owns. Disclaimer: The author provides some work for Wirex, but is also a keen customer.

Advantage 1: Bitcoin debit cards make holding and spending bitcoin easier

Many Malaysians are interested in bitcoin as an investment vehicle. Bitcoin debit card makes it easy to both hold and spend bitcoin. A bitcoin holder can choose to convert bitcoin into cash when the price increased, or hold it as bitcoin for long-term investment. The flexibility and ability to take advantage of bitcoin’s price anytime is very appealing for many bitcoin holders.

As covered above, bitcoin debit cards are also accepted at a lot more shops than bitcoin itself. Most places that accept Visa and Mastercard will accept the card (in fact, they won’t even know that it is a bitcoin debit card because it looks like a normal card!). This makes it easy to use bitcoin to purchase practical items like groceries or petrol.

Advantage 2: Bitcoin debit cards can be used as a great emergency card

Many Malaysians like the security of having a reliable emergency card. Standard bank-issued debit or credit card are usually used for this purpose, but banks also have the power to freeze access to the card at any time. This is problematic, especially if you are traveling overseas and some valid transactions are simply recorded as ‘unusual activity’. It is a security feature to avoid criminal activity, but it is also extremely stressful and takes hours or days to solve. It can easily ruin a long-awaited holiday.

Bitcoin debit cards do not have the same limitations as they follow a different (and arguably stronger) security protocol, which is only possible due to its underlying blockchain infrastructure. For this reason, the bitcoin debit card was called ‘the saviour of the tourists’.

Advantage 3: Getting a bitcoin debit card is ridiculously easy

You’ll have to hold a small amount of bitcoin in order to pay for the card cost (this is a product first offered to the Bitcoin community, after all), but if you do, you can apply for the virtual card online and get it instantly delivered to your inbox. It can be used for online purchases, which is handy for online-shopping-obsessed consumers like ourselves. If you want to use it in physical stores, the plastic card (bitcoin debit cards usually comes in two types: virtual and plastic), the card will be delivered to your house after online application.

This is unlike a standard debit card, where you first need a bank account, visit the physical branch, and deal with queues or opening/closing hours in order to get one.

Conclusion and how to get a bitcoin debit card in Malaysia

There are other advantages of bitcoin debit cards. For example, some bitcoin debit card providers allow Malaysians buy bitcoins with PayPal, perform mobile banking from Android and iOS smartphones, and perform instant and low-cost global money transfer.

Malaysians can get a bitcoin debit card from a bitcoin debit card provider that offers services in Malaysia (not all providers do this). This company is a reputable provider that cater to Malaysians – please follow their card guide for more information. For a review of the Wirex app, the mobile banking counterpart of Wirex, please read here.

About the contributor:

Suraya is a freelance writer specialising in personal finance, bitcoin, FinTech, and nonprofits. She believes that economic empowerment is women’s empowerment and writes about how she spends, saves, earns and invests money in Malaysia in her personal blog, Ringgit Oh Ringgit. Follow her at @surayaror.

Save

Save
[tags]

Top 10 Most Luxurious Hotels In Malaysia

• By CompareHero.my
• April 15, 2016

You don’t have to cross the borders of Malaysia to land yourself in some of the most luxurious 5 star hotels in the world. (more…)

Online Shopping: Local vs. International e-Commerce Websites

• By CompareHero.my
• April 13, 2016

With e-Commerce websites (a.k.a online stores) popping up like mushrooms, online shoppers are spoilt for choice. The convenience of the Internet and various e-payment methods available allows to you shop your heart out with local online stores or online stores from all corners of the world within the comforts of your home. But which one is better than the other? We’ll let the points below do the talking.

Item delivery  

You’ve paid for it, now you’re waiting for your order to arrive. But how long will it take to arrive? International online stores such as Amazon, SheIn and ASOS offer free shipping, but they typically deliver within 30 days (unless you pay extra for express delivery), while local online stores like Sally Fashion and Fashion Valet fulfill their deliveries within 7 – 14 days.

Note that most local-based online stores often charge for delivery services though, although some like Poplook.com and Fashion Valet offer free delivery within Malaysia. That being said, a lot of online stores – both local and international – offer free delivery if you fulfill a certain amount of purchases – a common marketing strategy to make you spend more.

Having said that, there are also international online stores that are based locally in Malaysia, such as Zalora and Lazada. These online store giants have been known to incorporate themselves in the local market by establishing physical offices and warehouses throughout several countries, effectively increasing the delivery speed and customer shopping experience.

Take Zalora for example; it offers plenty of options in the fashion department including clothes, makeup, shoes and accessories that are of high quality and more internationally nuanced. This strategy works great with both the locals and expatriates, as they no longer have to wait for 30 days to get a bridesmaid dress that may or may not be of good quality.

Payment options

First things first, make sure the e-Commerce website that you’re shopping on offers secured payment options, these include secured online banking, iPay88 or PayPal. The downside to shopping on international online stores is that they rarely offer payments in Ringgit, therefore you could be charged for currency exchange services by your credit card provider.

You wouldn’t have to go through that if you shop on local online shops, obviously. In fact, most of them even offer Cash On Delivery (COD) payment option for those who prefer cash transactions, namely Fashion Valet and Mudah.my. You have the option to shop from localized international online stores such as Radioshack, Zalora and Lazada if you prefer your transactions to be in Ringgit.

Product variety

We always want what we can’t have, but when it comes to brands and products that are still not available in Malaysian market, international online stores are our salvation (Old Spice body wash, anyone?). When it comes to product variety, international online stores like Amazon and eBay top the scoresheets, even though you may have to pay more for shipping charges.

Local online stores are of course, localised and therefore they are usually more relevant as they cater to the direct demands from the local market – sans the expensive shipping cost. You will not likely find any fancy Hollywood-looking dresses or designer brand hair products, but if you’re looking for hijabs, normal clothes and commercial brand makeup, they’ve got you covered. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to browse around local online stores and if you’re lucky, you might find the what you’re looking for on online stores that sell both local and international products such as Hermo and SHINS.

Returns and disputes

Here’s when things could get ugly, if not handled properly. International online stores do not – as a general rule of thumb – offer the most efficient or fastest customer service when it involves product disputes. This isn’t to say that local online stores offer the best service in these two areas, but it’s much harder to get your product return or dispute cases (especially refund cases) with international online stores simply because well, they’re not in Malaysia.

The entire process could take weeks – if not months – for your dispute or refund case to be resolved, not to mention that you’ll need to pay for the delivery costs out of your own pockets when you need to return the products.

The problem is made even worse if the online stores do not respond to your concerns, and some international online stores such as TwinkleDeals and Dress Lily do not even provide phone numbers for you to contact them directly, making it even harder to contact them.

On the other hand, most local online stores usually offer easier and faster returns and disputes solutions. Some of them offer store credit or discounts to cover the cost of the returned products, but even if you do have to bear the cost of the returns yourself, it will still be much less than if you had to return the products to an overseas address.

Zalora (an international store in its own right as mentioned earlier) offer free returns by including a free returns postal package with every purchase, something that isn’t normally offered even by the local online stores. This is one of the its initiatives that makes Zalora one of the most favourite online stores in Malaysia – which should encourage other local and international online stores to step up their game in order to provide better customer shopping experience to the masses.

Credibility

It’s not hard to verify the credibility of long-established online stores such as Amazon, ASOS, eBay and Mr Porter, but new online stores are now popping up everywhere and are aggressively marketing themselves on social media and paid advertising campaigns, and not everyone have the time or resources to research on their reputation and credibility.

New fashion online stores such as TwinkleDeals and Rosegal have been receiving horrible reviews over their poor quality products that look nothing like what was advertised in their websites. You can read about it here . These websites haven’t been in the market for very long, but the fact that they amassed millions of likes on Facebook in that short period of time – coupled with the fact that their products are ridiculously cheap – encourage people from around the world to buy from them, only to be disappointed later.

These issues happen when there aren’t enough – or easy – resources to refer to validate the credibility of an online store. Although there are plenty of online scams that are happening in the local e-Commerce scene, it’s a lot easier to ascertain the credibility of a local online store by asking your friends or checking if it is listed in the Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia (SSM).

See also: How To Spot A Cheat When Shopping Online

The verdict

In a nutshell, local online stores would be the better option in terms of the speed of delivery, faster communication and returns or disputes services, as well as the ease to ascertain their credibility and SSM status. These would hold true if you are looking for products that are available both locally and internationally.

Don’t forget that you can browse and shop at local-based international online stores for the products or items that are not easily found in the local market, as there is a higher chance of you finding what you’re looking for – or at least similar ones.

However, if you are looking for products that are not sold in Malaysia, the only way of you getting your hands on them (short of travelling overseas and buying them yourself) is by purchasing them via international online stores. The question is whether the products that you’re buying are worth the shipping costs and the long wait (again, unless you pay even more for express shipment).

The good thing is that most foreign products are sold much cheaper online than if they’re actually sold in Malaysia. There are both good and bad to shopping on international and local online stores, although if the products that you’re looking for is available locally (or similar products to the ones that you’re looking for), it’s more convenient for you to shop on local or local-based online stores.

Also, plenty of local and local based online stores offer discounts and cashback if you shop with your credit card. Still don’t have one? Compare credit cards on our free comparison tool and get the best one for your spending style today!

Save
[tags]