Have you used your digital wallet on a business trip recently? If you have, you’re not alone. A recent survey indicated that over 17 percent of U.S. business travelers had used a digital wallet; a little to our south, over 36 percent of our neighbors in Mexico and Brazil have embraced digital wallets, and are using them during business travel. While these numbers are relatively modest, they are growing rapidly, and for good reason. There are many great advantages for travelers using digital wallets during business travel. Here are some reasons why you should ditch the credit cards, checks and cash, and use a digital wallet the next time you hit the road on behalf of your company.
Security
Credit card theft is rampant worldwide, but especially in the United States. In 2014 alone, over 31.8 million
Americans had their credit cards either stolen or breached. A digital wallet can help reduce the risk that you fall prey to this exceedingly common crime while traveling on business. Â First and foremost, a digital wallet offers greater security while traveling than a billfold sitting in your back pocket. Access to your credit cards and data is encrypted in most digital wallet systems, then it is further secured through the passcodes or fingerprint identification system that further protects your phone. While no system is perfect, the level of security you can obtain with a digital wallet compared to a leather one should give you considerable peace of mind as a business traveler.
Convenience
Millions of people lose things on business trips each year whether by theft, lost luggage, or carelessness brought on by fatigue.
Part of the problem is that business travelers are required to carry so many items, including tickets, credit cards, cash, travel rewards cards, work-related mobile devices, that it is inevitable that something will get left behind sooner or later. One way to reduce your burden while traveling on business, and decrease the chance that something will get left behind, is to use a digital wallet. A digital wallet lightens the load of your real wallet, enabling you to store credit cards and other payment items within your smartphone. Additionally, you can further lighten your load by using your digital wallet to keep travel and hotel rewards cards, plane and train tickets, rental car agreements and rewards program cards, and the like in your phone as well. You can also use apps to access business presentations stored in the cloud, or use your device to capture receipts and write reports.
Opportunity
As e-payments and digital currency become ubiquitous globally, using digital wallets may offer business travelers opportunities that do not currently exist. For example, for business travelers with trips in developing countries, digital wallets may offer a way to pay for goods and services that would be otherwise impossible to do. It is reasonable to expect that systems like M-PESA, a digital phone payment service extremely popular in East Africa, will readily integrate with the more popular digital wallet payment systems that are out there today; other developing countries’ mobile payment systems will almost certainly follow suit. As electronic payment systems provide a framework to pay for things around the world without credit cards or cash, the digital wallet will become a key that unlocks your access into a rapidly changing financial landscape.
As you consider forsaking your old leather wallet in favor of a digital one, note that Due