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

More and more countries are increasingly using mobile applications as their mode of payment. Although this new trend makes it more convenient for several users in paying personal expenses, their personal information is also more vulnerable from data security breaches. Whilst acknowledging that there are benefits for cashless payments, the disadvantages of using mobile application is far greater than the advantages. The advancement of technology has brought several countries towards cashless society as more and more users prefer using mobile application to pay for consumer products. This paradigm shift has resulted to convenience and efficiency to a lot of people. Through mobile apps such as apple pay or grab wallet, people no longer need to bring their wallets at all times. In addition, credit and debit card information can now be stored in payment mobile applications which prevent a lot of people from losing their cards as they do not need to bring it everywhere with them. On the other hand, the biggest disadvantage of using payment applications in mobile phones is the risk of cybersecurity attacks. Reports show that there are an increasing number of people whose personal information has been hacked or stolen by cyber criminals. As a result, there is an alarming upsurge of cybercrimes such as stolen identity and cyber theft. For example, each year, several people have reported that their credit balance amount has increased, and many items were being purchased that they were unaware of. This kind of unfortunate incident does not only happen to one country, rather, it happens in every part of the world. To conclude, albeit the benefits of using payment mobile applications, the adverse impact of cashless payment to its users is unsurmountable. Therefore, the disadvantages outweighs the advantages.